


A Second Chance

by FandomDojo



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Reincarnation, F/F, Slow Burn, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-02
Updated: 2019-01-03
Packaged: 2019-02-27 07:39:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 20
Words: 44,345
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13243608
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FandomDojo/pseuds/FandomDojo
Summary: It was year 850 when the female Titan was defeated. many attempts to break her crystal was in vain and she remained frozen in time. years had passed since that day but the time did not budge the hard crystal. now in the year 2018, a mysterious lightning bolt cut through the sky. the crystal had been found again, shards chipped off and the girl inside had awakened. living in the a new era is not an easy task but with the help of some new found friends, Annie leonhardt will manage to put the past behind her and give herself a second chance.





	1. Chapter 1

"Annie, Fall"

those were the last words Annie heard as she fell to the ground, she had failed her mission and now she couldn't go back home.  
she could feel her body being surrounded by crystal, she knew that it was a defence mechanism special only to her titan, she didn't struggle to get free. only allowed herself to shed a few tears before she completely stilled.

unaware of the world around her, Annie continued to sleep in her crystal cocoon peacefully. she couldn't hear or see her surroundings, couldn't feel the pressure of machines drilling into her safe shell in a an attempt to pull her back into the world among the living, where she belonged.

the attempts didn't last long but there was always someone there to watch her and report of any changes, that also stopped after a few years. everyone seemed to give up the hope of saving Annie from her prison, and soon they all continued their lives as if she was never there. she was forgotten.

centuries had passed since that time and Annie still slept through them, the walls of her prison cell had rusted and fell apart in a heap on the floor, now Annie lays in the remains.

x

A lightning bolt boomed across the sky of a clear day in the shinganshina district. hitting the ground of a buried land and cracks echoed loudly.

the new times were awfully peaceful, especially now that dangers were no longer present and threatening to strike any momen.

the strange bolt of lightning raised many questions and so there was who tried to investigate. but as expected, the authorities arrived first at the scene to ward off any curious civilian.

an enthusiastic scientist was checking out the scene for any casualties before allowing the others to participate in finding clues.

"Captin Levi! look what we found" 

a short man with dark hair and a blank face looked up at the call of him name, silently looking at what his men were pointing at.

a large boulder, easily bigger than Levi himself, was cracked in the middle and seemed to have light pouring out.  
he sudied the cracks before putting his hand on the stone to find a bright blue hand print when he pulled it back. 

ignoring the urge to takw out a napkin and wipe his hand off, he instead brushed it against the stone again to remove the dirt.

his body froze at the sight of a hand, a human hand seemed to be buried inside what appears to be a clear crystal.

"Levi! have you seen anything yet?! i can't find anything that could cause such a-" 

"look." Levi cut off and pointed at the hand inside the crystal.

"oh my!" Hanji gasped and kneeled to study the details further. "is this what i think it is?!" 

"pretty much" Levi replied boredly watching as Hanji tried to clean off the dust with her hands, only to smudge it even further. he retrieved a napkin from his jacket pocket and wordlessly begun to clean a higher spot of the boulder. a face was slowly becoming clearer inside.

"it's a kid!" the napkin dropped from his hand and he pulled Hanji by the arm to look at his discovery. 

a blonde haired girl was resting inside with a peaceful yet pained expression. her face had some strange marking on her face and she seemed to be wearing a weird attire.

"Men! carry this boulder and load it into the truck, i think we found what we were looking for" Hanji exclaimed excitedly.

x

the now cleaned crystal sat in the middle of a large room, three figures stood infront of it and studied the girl inside. 

"she's dead." Levi deadpanned boredly.

"no she's not! she seems to be in a comatose state, she could still be alive!" Hanji protested. "Erwin you think she's alive right? we should take her out of there"

both gazes turned to look at the tallest figure in the room and awaited his anwer. Erwin stayed silent before deciding his answer.  
"it wouldn't hurt to try"

"Yes!" Hanji's cheer echoed once through the room and the sound of hurried footsteps soon followed. 

Hanji came back to the room with some tools and a few men to help out. 

"even if the girl was alive, we might as well digged her grave by letting her into Hanji's hands" Levi shook his head and stepped closer to the crystal to make sure nothing goes wrong.

"i heard that" Hanji pouted at her friend.

"you were supposed to, four-eyes"

turning back to the crystal, Hanji started calculating the angles they should cut into to avoid harming the girl. she was about to mark some lines on the surface when suddenly a burst of steam left the cracks.

"woah!" 

everyone shielded their faces from the hot steam and stepped back when the crack seemed to get bigger. a chunk had fell to the ground before the entire crystal broke into small shards. 

now with no support, the girl started falling forward. Erwin moved and grabbed the girl before she fell face first into the broken crystal shards.

it was silent for a moment before Hanji broke the silence. "i guess our work here is done!" 

"check her for any injuries and let her rest, when she wakes up we'll start the interrogation"

x

a few days passed before Annie had opened her eyes for the first time in over eleven centuries. she struggled to keep her eyes open under the bright light shining above her. she could hear some frantic calls outside the room.

'so it's finally time for me to face my fate huh' she thought with a frown.

"hello there" a voice to her right said.

Annie jumped lightly and looked at the person sitting next to the bed she was placed in. it was a woman with messy brown hair pulled into a ponytail and goggle-like glasses. she was wearing a thin white coat which had some pens tucked into it and a card tag clipped to the pocket. she had a clipboard on her lap which already had some notes in messy handwriting.

"my name is Hanji and I'll he asking you a few questions if you don't mind" 

"o-ok" she didn't notice before but her throat felt really dry now that she tried to speak.

"ok so, what is your name?" Hanji asked while pouring a cup of water from a nearby pitcher and handing it to Annie.

"Annie. Annie Leonhardt" she answered warily, she thought about lying and replying with a fake name but dismissed the idea.

"Alright Annie, how old are you?" 

"I'm sixteen" she didn't see any point in lying anymore, they probably knew who she was anyway.

"okay this all I'll be asking you until my partners get here. in the meantime, I'm sure you're hungry and still thirsty so you can help yourself to what I've brought you" she retrieved a tray from the ground and placed it in the bed next to Annie. "and feel free to say if you need to use the restroom"

Annie stayed silent while she ate, she relised how hungry she actually was when she saw the food infront of her. looking at the woman, Hanji, from the corner of her eyes as she shuffled through some papers.

"I'm done, may i use the restroom?" Annie asked politely.

"of course, it's that door over there" she pointed behind her and Annie nodded gratefully. she stumbled when she placed her feet on the ground but managed to walk successfully to the door.

two men walked through the door while Annie was busy, they stood by the door waiting for the blonde to return.

when Annie came back out, she wasn't really suprised to see other people had came. she stared at them and waited to hear what they wanted.

"Annie, come with us please, we have a lot to discuss" 

she simply walked behind them to a room that had a table and three chairs facing one more chair. she assumed she was being interrogated and took her seat at the single chair facing the other three.

"let's get right to the point, how and why were you in that crystal?" Levi demanded, leaning forward in his arms.

"now now Levi, is that a way to speak to our guest?" Erwin put his hand on the dark haired man's shoulder. "but yes, we want to know how you ended up in that situation" 

Annie's face darkened, as if they didn't know. she glared down at her lap and refused to answer. 

"i see you don't want to share your information" Erwin sighed rubbing his chin.

"thats an intresting uniform you're wearing there" Hanji spoke. "are you in some form of organisation?" 

"this is the Military Police uniform" she frowned, she knew she didn't deserve to call herself an MP. "do you guys not know what that is" 

"no, would you like to tell us?" Hanji offered with a smile. Annie didn't know if she was faking or not but she refused to take any bait they lay to get information from her.

"as if you don't know" shw snarled and crossed her arms.

"we really don't-""cut that crap out and tell us what we want to know"Levi cut off Hanji and slammed his fist on the table. Annie only glared at him.

"Annie" Erwin spoke "how long have you been in that crystal?" he asked.

"i don't know, a few days? months?" she shrugged.

"do you know what year it is?" he asked gently, his eyes showing concern. 

"of course, it's year 850" she said as if it was clear as day.

all three seemed to show suprised faces at the response. Hanji let a sad smile and shook her head.

"No Annie, it's 2018"


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was glad to see that some of you seemed to enjoy the last chapter  
> Please excuse any misspelled words, I didn't have time to check for typos  
> Enjoy :)

"no Annie, it's 2018"

those words felt like a harsh slap on the face to Annie, her first instinct was disbelief. she couldn't belive it and her mind could not process that information.

her second instinct was to cry. she may be a warrior and a solider but she was still a sixteen year old girl, a girl who had just been informed of nerve wrecking news. she didn't know how to handle this situation, she was not trained to recive this kind of information. 

Annie's mask slowly started to waver as tears gathered in her ice blue eyes, she could feel herself shaking violently but she couldn't stop herself. she couldn't even get herself to compose herself infront of those three pairs of eyes staring at her with some new found compassion.

and so with a loud sorrow scream, she cried. sobbed all the bottled up emotions inside, she didn't know if it was sickening or reliving but she did it anyway.

this kept on for about half an hour before it was decided that someone stepped in. Erwin laid his hand gently on Annie's head, which was buried in her arms on the table. 

"w-what am i supposed to do now? i f-failed my mission, i can't go home. i don't even ha-ave a home to go back to" fingers ran through her hair and the palm gently pulled her head back. Annie allowed herself to be pulled from her arms but she kept her downcast on her lap.

"don't worry Annie, we'll take care of this and help you get settled like everyone else, we'll help you build a life just like everyone else's"

"..why" she looked at Erwin with a wavering glare and trembling lips. "you don't know me and you have nothing to gain by helping me, so why are you offering me help"

"because we found you, so it's our job to make sure you're alright" Hanji spoke with sincerity.

"and because you're a minor, we can't allow you to live on the streets" Levi crossed his arms and closed his eyes with a sigh. he felt the need to do something but didn't want to make it seem like he was too eager.

"you wouldn't say that when you knew what i really am" Annie said with a cold tone, her tears forgotten and drying on her cheek. "I'm a monster that dosent deserve any help"

"why would you say that, Annie?" Hanji asked confused, what could she have to be considered a monster.

she swallowed heavily before stating "I'm a titan" 

Levi raised an eyebrow. "like those gods in greek mythology?"

"what? no! A titan! I'm a titan shifter" 

"we don't know what that is, brat. so explain" 

"Ooh!! i think i know what she's talking about, Erwin!" Hanji gasped and hurriedly ran out the room. 

it was silent for the whole duration of Hanji's leave, Annie was trying to figure out what Levi was talking about when she told him about being a titan. titans were no gods, they were the opposite, low life monsters that lived to serve and destroy. Erwin and Levi paitently waited, used to these scenarios already.

the door slammed open and Hanji ran back inside with a book tucked under her arm. she dropped it on the table and pointed at a page which she had opened.

"this is what she meant, the titans that lived a long time ago and was belived that they drove humanity to near extinction"

Annie stayed quiet during the three adults' discussion, she knew that once they were done, she was going to be excuted at the spot. however, she wasn't expecting the question she recived instead.

"can you still transform?" Erwin asked.

"i don't know, I'm still alive when I'm not supposed to so I'm not sure" she answered truthfully, maybe she was assumed dead and her powers had already moved on to a new holder.

"try"

"here? now?!"

"yes"

"you'll all be crushed! it needs to be outside and in a big clearing"

"Let's go outside then"

"r-really? how can you be sure i won't run away or try to kill you?" she asked raising an eyebrow.

"you asking these questions are proving to me that you had no intention of doing anything to us" Erwin answered calmly. "so now, will you show us?"

"i.. i guess i could try" to be truthful, Annie felt scared. she didn't want to transform to her titan again, the last time she had did not end up well for her.

"excellent"

x

it was the first Annie was actually able to see what it looked outside, the place felt familiar yet new. she recognised the walls that surrounded each district but they looked weaker than they used to be, as if they were only used for deceration or for territory marking. 

there was no canons above them and she could clearly see that the gates were open at their widest and there were no more soliders guarding it. they looked useless.

Annie walked slowly behind an excited Hanji, she dreaded doing this. she didn't want to be a monster again, would she even be able to control it after all this time?

"here we are!" Hanji suddenly stopped walking and if it hadn't been for the loud announcement Annie would have walked into her, but luckily she was able to stop herself and take a few steps back.

"now Annie! me, Levi and Erwin are going to stay a few meters away and you can take your time and do your thing"

take her time? if Annie actually took her time then it would be never. she watched as Hanji dragged the other men towards a tree and waved at her that she could start.

taking a deep breath and releasing it shakily, Annie looked at her right hand where her ring was still placed. that's right, she still had it because she used it to transform last time, she wondered briefly why they hadn't taken it from her. maybe they hadn't bothered checking her for weapons or never noticed the blade sticking out of it.

having been lost in her thoughts she didn't notice she had been shaking and staring down at her hand unfortunately for her, Levi seemed to be running out of paitence and launched a small acorn at her head.

she scowled at him but that didn't matter as he couldn't really see her face.

pushing the small button on her ring and watching as the blade unfolded, she briefly remembered her father before her thumb did a seemingly automatic gesture by now. it swiped over the blade and made a small cut to draw out her blood.

nothing. she waited for a bolt of lightning to strike her and pull out her titan form but it didn't happen. she was hoping that she could no longer be the female titan but it seemed that her hoped had been crushed by the steam that started pouring out of the cut. instantly healing it.

she tried again and again, she looked at her bloody thumb with disgust before violently biting her hand. still nothing. she trier many times before giving up at the sight of her blood trickling to the ground.

she looked to her side where three figures where waiting for her to do something. she felt a little bad for dissappointing them.

"it's not working!" she called out loudly.

"are you sure?!"

"yes!"

they walked up to her and she couldn't bare look at their faces, they probably thought she was a liar, just a lying kid looking for attention. she cursed at herself for not being able to say anything.

"that's alright, we'll take a short break and try again later" Hanji said kindly. "let's go and take care of your hands in the meantime"

x

seeing no point in leaving and returning shortly, everyone had stayed in the clearing. thankfully Hanji had thought ahead of time and brought a first aid kit a bag that contained supplies such as water and snacks. 

Annie sat alone leaning on a tree and watched as the three adults seemed to be having a serious conversation, she knew she shouldn't interrupt. 

she flexed her wrapped hands and resisted the urge to tear off the bandages. she could feel the steam leaking from under her bandages and it was irritating with how it was tickling her.

she sighed and got up to pick up the bottle she had drank. when all of a sudden a lightning bolt struck her and a giant skinless arm appeared.

she could tell it obviously startled the other as they seemed to change their demeanor from concern to cautious. or anger in Levi's case. he had immediately pulled out a gun from his jacket and pointed it at her.

"Annie what is this?!" Erwin glared.

"I'm sorry! i wasn't intending to do that!" she panicked, they obviously thought she was a dangerous enmy now. she looked at them, pleading for one of them to believe her as she pulled her arm out of the much larger one. steam started to pour out of it.

unlike the two, Hanji seemed to have a wide smile on her face while she advanced closer to the steaming arm.

"Hanji! get away from that!" Levi yelled as he tried to grab her arm.

"ooh my god, look at this, Levi. it's beautiful!" she had a creepy blushy face and let out a weird laugh as she laid her hand on one of the large fingers. she may have not noticed or she didn't really care that steam was coming out of the arm resulting in her accidentally burning her hand. "ouch!"

"you better start explaining this right now before i blow your head off" Levi threatened pointing the gun at Annie.

"i-i.. i don't know what happened! this never happened before" she said with a frown.

"Levi, calm down can't you see this?" Hanji said calmly. 

"see what?" 

"this" she pointed at the water bottle thay Annie had intended to pick up, it was between the thumb and index fingers. clearly it was meant to be picked up that way by Annie. "i think i know why it didn't work the first time" 

Levi was silent for a moment as he stared but hardened his gaze again when he looked at Annie. "do it again" he demanded. "properly this time"

"i.. ok" she agreed.

"try to keep a clear goal in mind this time" Hanji gave an encouraging smile and a thumbs up as she led the wary Levi and silent Erwin away. she wondered what could he be thinking about.

"keep a clear goal" Annie murmured to herself. she wanted to prove herself to them, she was not a liar and she didn't want to be their enmy. she had no obligation to take anymore lives or be the villain.

"keep a clear goal" she repeated before unfolding her knife ring and swiping her finger over it.

a large boom echoed loudly and the lighting bolt forced the others to momentarily shield their eyes. when they reopened them, the female titan's eyes stared back into theirs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I posted the chapter earlier than i originally planned because of the nice feedback i got on the first chapter.  
> It's slowburn as it says in the tags so bare with me until the exciting stuff comes along, these scenes are kinda important ;)


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was really excited about the chapter so i spent all day writing it today  
> Enjoy :)

the female titan stood to it's full height and looked down at the humans below, Erwin seemed to be studying the titan while Levi didn't look too fond of the huge creature before him, his eyes showing distrust and doubt.

Hanji had snapped out of shock to go through a fangirl moment that lasted about a full five minutes before clearing her throat and trying to compose herself.  
"Annie! can you hear me up there?!"  
the female titan did nothing but slightly open it's mouth to release a small puff of steam, it was small compared to the titan at least. 

"can you understand what I'm saying?!" Hanji cupped her hands around her mouth to make her voice sound louder.

Annie rolled her eyes at the question, of course she could understand her. it's not like transformimg would reduce her brain capacity. however, she slowly kneeled on the ground and kept her gaze on the scientist waiting for an order.

a strange noise seemed to come out from Hanji, accompanied by a heavy blush. Levi and Erwin didn't seem to be bothered by it as much as Annie was, they were probably used to it.

"ooh, this is amazing, just imagine what kind of experiments i could do to study this" Hanji spoke to herself and went on about what kind of tools she was going to use and what kind of orders they could give to the titan.

"Annie, that's enough to make us believe you, go back to normal and let's go back"

Hanji's head snapped to Erwin so fast it would've probably injure the woman but she didn't seem bothered. she was more concerned about why Erwin would say something like that. didn't he know the potential of Annie's power?!

"why?!" 

"i know what you're thinking Hanji, but we are not going to experiment on the kid. she is not a lab rat" 

"but Erwin-"

"no Hanji, we need to go back to base, reports this and figure out what to do with the kid" Erwin said firmly.

".. fine"

they both looked up at the titan as it's body seemed to evaporate, Annie's much smaller body emerging from the nape.

x

on the way back Annie noticed that they took a different route than the one they came from, the place they had her staying at before was an old building that looked somewhat like a midevil barricade. they were heading now to a pavemented road that had a few veichles parked on the side.

"where are we going?" 

"to see the commander" Hanji replied with a smile.

"why?" Annie furrowed her brows.

"to ask him what we should do with you" Levi replied coldly. he really didn't like her, did he?

Annie didn't ask any further questions, she walked slowly behind Erwin, who was holding a strange device in his hand and was tapping at it's screen with his thumb.

she saw a similar device with Hanji and Levi too, she assumed it was either pretty popular among the poeple now or it was just for military purposes and the authorities to have. 

she sighed and shoved her hands into the pockets of her pants, she looked like a hobo in her dirty and torn military police uniform. couldn't they at least let her wash up and maybe offer some fresh clothes? at least give her some time to clean her own. she did stay in these for a long time after all, she didn't dare and try to take a whiff from the inside of her hoodie.

they arrived at a big building, it wasn't old like the old place they've been at, though it looked this one was built a while ago and went through various repairs.

"this is the police station" Erwin laid a hand on her shoulder.

she tensed briefly, were they going to throw her in jail? she felt sad for a moment, she really thought they wanted to help her. but that was to be expected, she was an enmy to humanity after all.

"commander pixis will talk to you then we'll see what his decision is" he didn't remove his hand and led her insider with the two following behind. "don't be nervous, you haven't done anything wrong so you aren't in trouble" 

he opened a door and let her inside but did not follow, he closed the door behind her. 

she took a quick scan of the room before she looked at the old man sitting on chair at a table in the middle of the room.

"hello Annie, I'm commander pixis"

he had a weird vibe to him, he had a flask in his hand and he signalled for her to sit in the chair across from him, so she did.

"Erwin told me about you, Annie" he said and waited for her to reply. she stayed quiet so he continued. "i hear that you've been through a lot lately, too much information has been said to you that you probably still can't fully process"

"i also heard of your powers, Annie. they sound incredible, unfortunately you've been using them to do bad things in your time haven't you?" he asked knowingly.

Annie gulped and lowered her head, she knew she was going to be confronted about this sooner or later.

"we've done some research in some old reports that match the time you said you were from and we were actually suprised to see your name pop up a few times.."

she was mentioned by name?! she knew what he was referring to but still didn't say anything and waited for him to continue.

"what we initially wanted to do was treat you like the criminal you were.."

Annie gripped the fabric of her pants tightly, this was it. this is as far she goes.

"but that time has passed now, it's been too long since the titans even exsisted, so Annie" he said firmly and she flinched at his tone.

"we cannot punish you for something that happend over eleven hundred years ago"

she snapped her head up to look at him in disbelief, her eyes widening, did she hear him right?! he said they weren't going to punish her! but why? did they want something in return? she didn't have anything that she could offer and she was not going to be a solider, not anymore.

"what?! why?" the question slipped out her mouth before she could stop herself or reconsider her words.

"as i said, it would be pointless to punish you for something that happend centuries ago, and our laws forbid us to do anything against you anyway since you are a minor. for now though, you'll be going to get a chance to live as a normal child like everyone else. that meanst you'll be living with someone until you are legally an adult-"

"i can take care of myself" she interrupted hurriedly, last thing she wanted was some stranger coming into her life and boss her around.

"i trust that you do but its the law, no one below 18 is to live alone without adult supervision. understood?" he replied.

"yes" she muttered.

"good. you'll be reciving a monthly allowance from your caretaker. other than that, you'll be going to school like other teenagers, study, get a job if you want" 

she scoffed, she went through all that before already, she didn't want to go to school again but understood why she must.

"and one last thing" he suddenly turned serious and his eyes seemed to bore into hers. "you must not use your powers under any circumstanc. at least don't get caught" he finished with a playful wink.

she sat stunned, what did this old geezer mean, don't get caught? 

"we're done here for now, run along and go get the paperwork for your enrollment in school, your monthly allowance and meet your new caretaker, they'll be taking you to get anything necessary that you'll need"

"thank you" she bowed her lighlty, this man was giving her a chance to live a new life, thanking him was the least she could do.

"no need for all that, now run along" he waved her off.

x

Annie left the room and was met by a lady who had been waiting at the door, she was given a folder and an envelope. the lady told her the folder contains an ID, a passport, a few necessary certificates and paperwork and her school enrolment papers. while the envelope only contains some cash for the allowance pixis was talking about.

the lady told her what necessary arrangements that she had to go through before she was fully registered as a citizen. then led her to a room where she would meet her 'adult caretaker'.

Annie's hand stayed at the door handle, what if they didn't like annie? what if annie didn't like them? would that even matter? she hoped it was someone she could at least tolerate.

taking a deep breath and turning the handle, Annie slowly opened the door to reveal Hanji, Levi and Erwin sitting at a couch waiting.

"you guys again?!"

"what seems to be the matter, Annie? do you not like us?" Hanji teased.

"i..it's not that" she replied. "i just thought I'd be living with only one person"

"well you're stuck with us now" Hanji beamed. "we're the ones who found you after all"

Annie didn't know how to reply to that, she just stood and stared until Levi stood up.  
"let's go then, we have things to do"

x

they were supposed to take annie shopping for new clothes as she only had one outfit and it wasn't really fit to go out in as it drew attention, but Levi had refused to go anywhere with her until she took a shower and cleaned herself.

Annie wasn't really complaining, she felt relived to finally be able to get a decent shower and get rid of the filth that stuck to her body for a long time. she remembered the battle that went down at Trost, how she was easily defeated and taken down.  
it felt good to be able to wash all that away.

after a long day shopping with two awkward men and one over excited Hanji, they went to have her tested at a hospital to release a medical record, she had to get a few shots but that didn't really matter to Annie, she faced much worse, what's a few measly shots?

last but not least, she had to go through a few tests since she haven't gone to any school and didn't have any gpa records.

x

Annie laid in her new bed at end of the night, this is where she'll be living from now on. she didn't know what to feel about all that's been happening lately. she felt overwhelmed. 

Hanji led her to this room after getting dinner and gave her a small pep talk about how she should look forward to this new life, maybe she should.

but something still felt wrong to Annie, like something was missing and she couldn't figure out what it was.

Annie closed her eyes and buried her face into her pillow, she tried to fight the tears that were leaking from the corner of her eyes but they wouldn't stop.

was all of this really happening? is she really getting a second chance?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So for the next chapters, it'll be a highschool story for now.  
> Also if you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask, i read your comments and i try to answer them in the story itself if i can. If i see that it will be too long until that question is answered i will reply to you in the comments.  
> .  
> Again thank you to all those who gave kudos and commented, it makes me happy to see that there are people who like the story.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A chapter that's more like a filler but i still hope you enjoy :)

when she sleeps, Annie dreams.

but it's always the same dream, day after day. 

Annie stands in a clearing, sweaty and tired, practicing her kicks since early morning until the sunset.

she can feel herself getting frustrated, the tree bark she's been abusing all day had not wavered no matter what she did. so she kept kicking until her legs were swollen.

Annie didn't notice when the scenery changed, she kept kicking at the tree until it suddenly vanished making her stumble. she looked around warily until her eyes fell on a familiar figure and she froze at the sight, heart dropping to her stomach and blood going cold.

she couldn't bare look at it, she hated herself everyday because that face haunted her dreams, she can see it everytime she closes her eyes.

shaking her head violently and turning to run away from the dead body. Marco's body. she felt disgusted, Marco hadn't been anything but kind to her and this is what she's done to him. even though she knows he's sitting there lifeless and limo, she could swear she can feel his sullen eye follow her as she ran.

Annie ran. she didn't know where to go but she had to get away. 

Annie slowed down when she found herself in a dark place, it was completely black and she couldn't see any paths but she felt scalding steam hit her from behind.

her heart thumped in fear, and she shaked uncontrollably. she didn't know why her head turned to look at the beast because when their eyes met, Annie felt all air leave her lungs and she couldn't breath.

before her stood the female titan's body, seemingly floating in the darknes while Annie stood in it's opened palms.

she could see it's fingers wrapping around her body trapping her inside, feeling helpless Annie tried to push them away, she desperately wanted to break free. but the titan growled and clasped it's hands together imprisoning Annie in darkness.

x

Annie woke with a gasp, sweat covered her body and stuck her hair to her head. it was still dark outside, probably around four or five. 

she couldn't go back to sleep so might as well get up and try to look for something to do in the meantime.

sitting up and running a hand through her messy bedhair to tame it down, Annie looked at all the scattered plastic bag around the room, they were filled with clothes and other things Hanji insisted they buy.

she wondered where they got all that money from, no one would willingly buy so much crap for a stranger. she decided to take a look at them to busy herself, Hanji mainly bought them alone while Annie just sulkingly nodded her head whenever she said something or asked a question.

she hoped she didn't agree to buying girly clothes, Annie would rather go outside only in her underwear rather than wear a dress or a skirt.

after a few hours of Annie going through all the bags, she was actually satisfied with everything that she looked at. unfortunately she had a mess of clothes that needed to be tidied and arranged now.

she huffed and looked lazily at the built in closet in her room and wondered wither she should just stuff them inside and hope no one notices or actually fold them and place them neatly.

eventually, Annie's lazy side won and she got up to leave the room to see if anyone had woken up. at least she did take everything off the floor and threw everything on the bed.

she walked down the hallway and looked for any sign of life in the nearby rooms.

"what are you doing up so early, brat" 

Annie jumped and spun around to see Levi sitting on a stool in the kitchen with a cup of coffee in his hands. "aren't you kids supposed to sleep till noon?"

"I'm a solider, we wake up before the sun is out" she replied. 

he raised an eyebrow. "and how long have you been up?"

"a couple of hours maybe" she shrugged.

"and what were you doing during that time?" 

"looking through the bags that were thrown around in my room" she answered boredly.

"well since you have nothing to do anyway, i want you to do some chores around the house" he said, looking in the cabinets for cleaning products.

"what do you need me to do?" she asked walking inside, she had nothing to do anyway.

"take out the trash and get the mail" he said pulling out a bucket and mop. Levi was going to make sure this house was spotless by the end of the day.

Annie did as told and when she came back inside Levi was in the middle of vacuuming the floors. she stared at the vacuum with a comfused expression, she had to learn as much as she could about the new technology if she wanted to blend in with others.

"don't just stand there with that stupid look on your face, get to work" levi said seriously. 

'this is gonna be a long day' Annie thought miserably.

x

Annie had cleaned three bathrooms, mowed the lawn, washed dusty dishes, dried them and placed them back in their place, was forced to go deal with the mess in her room. Levi had been so pissed when he went to vacuum and laid eyes on the pile on the bed. he would've made her clean them by hand but Hanji finally woke up and spared her.

she was lucky to get away from Levi during his cleaning duty but unfortunately she had to go with Hanji to a grocery store and buy things.

she scowled while she pushed the cart and followed Hanji, she almost wished she was back in the crystal. 

"how are you guys paying for all of this anyway?" she asked grumpily as she dragged her feet across the smooth floor.

"oh we've been given money to spend on you since we're your legal guardians now, me and Levi will be living with you while Erwin will be visiting occasionally" Hanji answered as she squinted to read the back of a carton box.

"i think Levi should be the one to handle the money from now on" she deadpanned.

"what why?" Hanji asked offended.

"because you're spending it on things we don't even need" Annie replied bluntly as she looked at the cart, it was filled with mostly junkfood and canned food.

"but these are necessary" Hanji pouted.

"why do we need this much of whatever this is" Annie asked lifting a bix of frozen pizza.

"its for dinners" Hanji grinned.

"why can't we just make food ourselves? frozen food is not good" she argued.

"just try it before you say that, it'll be good i promise"

Annie scoffed and let Hanjo do whatever she wanted, she hoped Levi will be mad when they got back though. it's amusing to watch him when he gets angry.

she wondered if he was done cleaning, she hoped so, cleaning with him is worst than running laps around training grounds back in the cadet corps. speaking of the cadets, she wouldn't admit it but she actually missed those days.

long flowing black hair accompanied by a red scarf caught the corner of her eye and Annie went rigid. no no, she was just imagining things, Annie shook her head and moved to follow Hanji. she hoped to get another glimpse just to make sure but the girl had already walked away.

"come on Annie we're done, let's get back before Levi gets mad and calls me"

Annie paid her words no attention as she tried to recall what she saw minutes ago, what even was that. 

x

they were back. and Hanji was in trouble.

Annie sat on a stool in the kitchen watching Levi yell in his ridiculous cleaning clothes, she snorted when he bonked her on the head lighlty with his fist before turning to look at Annie.

"did you finish cleaning your room?" he crossed his arms.

"yes" she muttered.

"good, take these" he dropped a bunch of books on the table and held a backpack in his hand.

"what are these?" she asked with a frown.

"youre school supplies, you start in a week" he smirked.

"so soon?" she was not looking forward to this.

"yes luckily for you, you don't have to start in the middle of a semester and struggle to keep up" 

"wow lucky me" she said sarcastically.

"I'd recommend you to take a look at them before school actually starts because you don't want to be shoked at the contents when you go to class" he laughed and walked away with his broom in hand.

Annie didn't find that funny, she glared at the pile of books infront of her hoping they'll catch on fire.

she definitely wanted to be back in her crystal now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Annie glimpsed someone huh? Who might that be :)  
> Next time will be Annie confronting people from her.. past? And how she deals with it  
> Stay tuned ;)


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Annie's first day and she already met some familiar faces.  
> Enjoy.

Annie stood just right outside the main building of her new school, Shinganshina high. she actually felt nervous about this, students passed by her and gave her odd looks, probably because she was just standing there like a motionless statue.

"Good Luck on your first day, Annie!!" 

Hanji waved goodbye from the window of the car as Levi stepped on the gas pedal and sped off. Annie ignored the snickers of the people around her as she stepped inside the doors.

ignoring stares and hushed whispers was something Annie was good at, she had no time or paitence to deal with them. she had better things to do. like find where the hell was she supposed to go for her first class.

Annie cursed lightly as she walked aimlessly, she felt too embarrassed to ask anyone. she eventually came across a door with 'admission office' written on the window, she sighed in relif and headed for it.

she knocked lightly then waited for permission to come in, she saw a lady behind a desk and stepped forward.

"hello I'm new here, my name is Annie leonhardt" she said politely

"oh yes miss Leonhardt, I've been waiting for you to come by. the principal told me about you and your situation"

Annie raised an eyebrow at this, her situation? she couldn't be talking about how she was frozen for centuries in a crystal was she? Erwin said no one could know about it.

"i know you've never went to a school before but im sure you'll like it here" the woman smiled. oh. of course.  
"i already printed out your scedule and some information you'll need, like your ID and locker number. you'll probably need a map too seeing as you're new and we wouldn't want you to get lost" 

the woman rambled on and Annie just nodded her head when a few times, she collected her things and was about to leave when she was stopped.

"wait, i think it'd be better for you if someone gave you a tour of the school. it would save you some trouble later" the woman suggested.

Annie thought about it. on one hand she'd have to deal with some annoying kid. but on the other hand, she won't have to go through so mucn time walking around like an idiot and risk being late.

she shrugged and accepted.

x

a blond boy hurriedly made his way out of his friend's car and clutched his bag to his chest. he spun around to briefly wave goodbye to his two friends before running across the parking lot to the school building.

he had been a little late today which would not make a good first day impression. the headmaster told him that he wanted him to go to the admission office as soon as he could. said that there was a new student that he would be taking the responsibility of showing the school to and making sure they knew their way around.

he could see his two friends walking behind him at a slower pace, they had decided to accompany him on his task because they wanted to see this new and mysterious student.

usually there would be some rumours spreading around and the entire school body would know about what this new student is like before they even arrived.

but not this one, no one knew who they was and where they came from. no one recognised the name or seen them around so they assumed it was someone who recently moved in to the city.

knocking on the door and opening it lightly to peek in, the boy saw the usual woman sitting at her desk and going through some files. he saw the other figure standing nearby and took his time looking at her as he slowly entered. his friends would wait for him to come out with the new kid.

the girl was shorter than him and had blonde hair which was placed in a messy bun. shw wore a simple white hoodie, blue jeans and brown boots. she wasn't facing him so he couldn't see her face.

"ah there he is!" the lady smiled upon seeing him. "Armin here will be showing you around the school today, Annie"

Annie turned around and Armin could see her clearly now. the sharp and sullen eyes, a hooked nose but it suited her, and a small natural frown was visible on her face.

"um hello there, My name is Armin Arlert and I'll be showing you around school" he smiled awkwardly, Annie was looking at him in a clearly disturbed expression, she looked like she'd seen a ghost.

"shall we go then? i hope you don't mind but my friends will be tagging along too" he nervously said when she didn't respond to him the first time. she didn't the second time either.

x

Annie stared in disbelif. she was aware how awkward and selfconcious her gaze seemed to make the boy but she didn't care.

how could this be? Armin Arlert? was this a fucking joke? he can't be alive! was the universe playing some sick joke on her?

no. no. it was just coincidence. she desperately tried to believe that, but this wasn't normal. she would belive it if he simply had the same name or shared some features, but this was an exact same copy of the Armin Arlert from her 104th cadet group. 

the same eyes, the same height, the same build. heck even the same silly haircut that he refused to change.

Annie could hear an evil in the back of her mind and she shook her head to make it go away.

Armin showed slight concern for her and stepped closer to see if something was wrong. Annie flinched away from his touch, pulling away from the hand that was about to rest on her shoulder.

"n-no, I'm fine." she finally found her voice and replied to him. "w-we can go" she silenty cursed at the crack in her voice.

"are you sure?" he asked gently.

"yes" she mumbled nodding her head.

"well if you say so, my friends are waiting for us just outside the door" he smiled and mentioned for her to follow him.

she placed her hands in her new hoodies' pocket and clenched them in fists. she was trying to stop the faint shaking of her body.

she didn't mentally prepare herself to see, yet another two of her old 104th cadet group members. she should've guessed that these two were the friends he talked about.

Annie seethed as she saw Armin talking to his friends, her enemies. her old enemies to be precise but still enemies nontheless.

Eren Jaeger and Mikasa Ackerman.

those two stood talking to Armin animatedly about whatever they were talking about. or rather Eren and Armin were doing the talking. Mikasa was just nodding slightly to whatever they were saying.

Annie silently prayed that this was only just a bad dream and she'd wake up a few minutes later with no supposedly dead people talking infront of her. but that didn't happen.

Instead, Armin turned around to introduce his friends to her. as if she didn't already know who they are, but a part of her wished they would have different names. just to prove to herself that this was just some messed up misunderstanding.

"Annie, these are mu friends Eren Jaeger and Mikasa Ackerman" he said with a smile as Eren cheerfully waved while Mikasa did nothing.

Annie clenched her jaw and watched them walk up to her. 'don't say anything weird and don't cause an unnecessary scene' she told herself. 'just go with it'

taking a deep breath and letting it out. Annie collected herself and replied with a simple. "I'm Annie Leonhardt, nice to meet you" in a bored tone. it was the best normal tone she could pull off in a situation like this.

but then again, how manu times did she have to speak with people who she knew did not exsist anymore but were appearently reanimated during the time she would be living? that's right. none.

they didn't seem to hate her or recognise her. Armin and Eren seemed okay with her actually, Mikasa on the other hand looked like she didn't really want to be here.

Annie assumed that this Mikasa shared the same attitude as the Old Mikasa. she didn't want to get involved with her.

Armin stopped his friend's attempt to start a conversation with her by telling them that they should start moving now or they wouldn't be done by the time for class.

Annie walked behind Armin as he walked around the corridors and talked about where the classes she was supposed to take are. she paid attention for the first 10 minutes before her mind wandered somewhere else.

thankfully the school wasn't that hard to navigate and Armin announced that they would be done as soon as they took Annie to her locker then walked her to class.

the tour was soon to come to an end as they aproached Annie's first class, but their path was blocked by a few muscular guys standing in the middle of the hallway.

Armin looked at them nervously as they stared him down. he attempted to be brave and not embarrass himself infront of a new possible friend and not very convincingly asked them to step aside.

they just laughed and shoved him into Eren as both boys tumbled to the ground. Mikasa was immediately there to help them up as she glared dangerously at the guys. Annie didn't feel the need to interfere because if this Mikasa was really the same as the old one, then they wouldn't really need her help anyway.

"and who is this?" he leaned an uncomfortable distance itno Annie's personal space and stretched his arm around to grope her ass.

Annie grabbed his wrist and painfully squeezed making him jerk back and try to desperately pull his arm back. her eyes flashed in anger as she flipped him over her shoulder and slammed him into the ground.

his friends seemed frozen in shock, and so did the trio at the side. 

Annie looked at the other two guys and silently dared them to make a stupid move like their friend had. 

of course they did. they were stupider than Annie thought they would be.

they charged at her in attempt to take advantage of her small frame and tackle her but she simply held her fists up in her signature fighting stance.

they ended up on their backs with their legs dangling infront of their faces as Annie simply walked past them and over to the trio.

"shall we go now?" she asked them ignoring the looks she was reciving. 

"u-uh yes" Armin said as he accepted Mikasa's hand and took his place infront of the three. "your class is just around the corner"

Annie nodded and followed ignoring Eren's look of amazement and Mikasa's burning stare. she brushed off the urge to feel the back of her head for any holes Mikasa's eyes had burnt through.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Someone asked me if i could make the chapters longer, i thought that long chapters would bore you guys so i kept them fairly short.  
> Would you want me to make the chapters longer?  
> Don't hesitate to comment any questions you have :)


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait, I've been getting distracted lately by playing video games.  
> I made the chapter a little longer but I've written this in about one day so if there's any typos pls ignore them lol i posted the moment i was done  
> Ps. There's a little manga/lost girls spoilers ahead  
> Enjoy

classes were not not as bad as Annie thought they would be. of course they would be even better if the whole class wasn't staring at her, even the teacher gave her some uneasy glances.

she would've felt smug about it if it wasn't becoming annoying really fast.

she pulled up her hoodie then laid her head on her desk, she'll just ignore them till they stop. but someone decided not to let her as a paperball fell on her head a few seconds later. Annie ignored it too.

but a second one hit her shoulder and landed right infront of her face. she huffed and sat up to glare at whoever dared to disturb her.

Connie Springer and Sasha Blaus sat behind her giggling to themselves while they looked at her. Annie knew them, or rather knew them a long time but they didn't know her.

she met a lot of familiar faces today but if she didn't want to look suspious she'd have to act like she hadn't met them before. which after a second thought was actually true. these were different people after all.

"what do you idiots want?" she hissed lowly.

"we just wanted to introduce ourselves" Sasha grinned and Connie nodded along.

"i don't care who you two bozos are so piss off" Annie said rudely.

she left the two gaping and stunned as she turned around with a huff.

she knew what she said was unnecessary but she wasn't going to get involved with these people again, it was just too much. seeing people who you knew were dead is overwhelming, especially if a part of it was your fault.

Annie almost had a panic attack in her last class because of one Marco Bott, so she was on edge. he sat next to her and attempted to introduce himself to the new student, Annie felt bad, he was really nice like he always was in the 104th cadet corps.

but Annie couldn't see anything other than than his dead body infront of her, his half eaten face staring with a sunken eye. when he talked to her all she could hear was his cries of 'why Annie?' and she almost passed out on the spot. 

thankfully no one was paying attention at that moment and she had swallowed the bile rising in her throat before awkwardly getting up to pick up her stuff and move to a different seat.

she sat with her face down on the desk throughout the entire period, her arms wrapped tightly around herself stomach while she tried to stop shaking. Marco's concerned gaze didn't help her settle down at all either.

but now Annie had figured out that everyone was going to pop up sometime soon and she had to prepare herself for it. she dreaded seeing her old 'teammates' again.

she cast a glance over her shoulder to the now sulking duo, their poses was humorous enough to make her crack a small smile. Connie's head was laid face down on the desk while Sasha had her legs up on the chair and hugged to her chest while her head laid on her knees.  
she could almsor feel the broody vibes.

she sighed and turned back to face them again, she didn't even get a chance to talk before Sasha had sprung from her previous state and immediately grabbed Annie's hand and shook it with a huge grin. 

"Hi I'm Sasha Blaus!" she said enthusiastically before clapping Connie on the shoulder and introducing him as well. "and this is Connie Springer!" 

Annie sweat dropped and pulled her hand back. "I'm Annie Leonhardt" 

"you're the new student! where are you from? when did you move here? do you like it so far? what class do you have next-" 

"woah Sasha don't go too strong on the girl there, go easy on her" Connie cut off with a chuckle.

"sorry sorry" she laughed sheepishly. "do you by any chance want want to join us for lunch?"

she knew she shouldn't accept.

she shouldn't, yet she did.

x

Annie walked slowly behind the two to the cafeteria, she didn't know where it is so might as well let them lead her there. she could hear Sasha whining about how the line will get too long if they didn't hurry.

Connie seemed content enough to walk lazily behind her as she attempted to drag him with her. 

upon their arrival at the food court Sasha had immediately ran off towards the canteen hoping to buy as much food as possible before it ran out. at least Connie had been nice enough to lead her to the table he and his friends sat at everyday. 

Jean and Marco sat there with Krists and Ymir. she tried to avoid Marco's gaze as she and Connie aproached thr table. he seemed to have gotten over the awkward meeting in their shared class, he gave her a smile and a wave.

she tried to smile and give a wave back but it came out more forced than she intended.

"hey guys have you met the new kid yet? me and sasha invited her to sit with us today" he grinned and slid in the seat next to Jean and gave him a high five.

"we're in a class together but we haven't met properly yet" Marco answered and turned to her hoping there isn't going to be a repeat of last time.

"I'm.. sorry for how i acted before, i uh.. i wasn't feeling well" Annie apologied awkwardly as she offered her hand for a handshake. "My name is Annie Leonhardt"

he accepted it with a bright smile. "I'm Marco Bott, and this is my boyfriend Jean kristein"

they were romantically involved here? she had always suspected something was up with these two before. she glanced over to the remaining two at the table, they were completely relaxed and cuddling together without caring about what anyone would say.

"hi Annie, I'm Historia Reiss and this is Ymir, my girlfriend" Krista, or Historia now, introduced herself and her girlfriend. she wondered if this was the only thing different from before, or was her name actually Historia back then.

"nice to meet you" Annie nodded her head in greeting.

"nice meeting you too, shortie" Ymir smirked.

Annie's eyes narrowed, if she hated something more than anything else, it was being called out on her height.  
"excuse me" she glared.

"you're excused" Ymir laughed then went back to nuzzling her girlfriend's hair.

"she doesn't mean anything by it" Historia hurriedly said when she noticed how angry Annie actually was.

she didn't respond but just sent a dirty look at Ymir before letting it go.

"so Annie-" Jean attempted to say something but was a cut off with a loud and brash yell from across the court.

"hey horse face! no one cares about what you have to say!!" 

Jean's eyebrow twitched before getting up to yell back a remark. "i wasn't talking to you, was i?!" 

Annie turned around in her seat to the trio from this morning, Eren was marching to Jean angrily while Armin followed him nervously while grasping the back of his shirt in attempt to stop him.

Mikasa was walking at her own pace behind the two, the cafeteria went quiet at her arrival and she could see that many people were staring at her in amazement. 

Annie was looking at her with distaste. she never got along with the old Mikasa and she wasnt going to attempt to with this new Mikasa. she had a feeling it wouldn't be much different.

their eyes briefly met and they were stuck in an intense staring match. it was quickly cut off with the arrival of the group at the table. Eren and Armin seemed pretty happy with the new edition to the group.

"hey Annie, it's nice to see you again" Armin waved.

Eren went to sit in the empty seat row next to Annie but was held back by Mikasa.

"sit here Eren" she ordered pointing at the seat next to the one Eren wanted to claim.

"why? i want to sit next to Annie" he grumpled.

"now" she left no room for discussion.

"fine" he shoved past her and sat down.

Annie rolled her eyes, she knew what Mikasa was doing, she was making sure that Eren was sitting between Armin and herself. not between Armin and Annie. she had no intrest in paying attention to Mikasa's jealous antics over Eren.

"have you guys seen the new tagging on the walls outside yet?!" Connie said excitedly 

"yeah! the principal will be so pissed about it, he just got the walls painted" Eren laughed. "i really love the pranks those guys pull" 

Annie raised an eyebrow in question, silently asking for an explanation.

"there's these guys who are basically the bad kids of the school, they're always in trouble because of the pranks and stuff they do" Historia explained.

"speak of the devils" Ymir said looking ahead. "and they shall come"

Annie had already guessed it before it unraveled before her. yes, her old two teammates were walking towards the table, Reiner was wearing a big satisfied smirk on his face while Bertholdt had a nervous sweaty smile.

"hey Reiner love the new tag!" Eren stood up in excitment. "are you two sitting with us today?!"

"not really, we just want to tell you guys about pur new plans" Reiner went on without noticing the new company in the group until Bertholdt elbowed him in the side.

"oh and who's this?"

"Annie Leonhardt" honestly she getting bored with repeating her name so many times.

"welcome to the group, Leonhardt! you should probably be aware that once you sit with these guys a few times you'll never be able to get away from them. I'd run if i were you" Reiner laughed.

"i think I'll be fine" she replied.

"you seem cool Annie, would you like to hang out with me and Bert sometimes?" 

"yeah sure, come find me when you want to hang out" she was curious about how these two would act here, in all honesty she actually missed them and genuinely liked spending time with them. even if reiner could be an ass or when bertholdt got too awkward to be around.

"why don't you hang out with starting tomorrow?" 

"I'd like that" she smiled lightly.

"aww no fair, Reiner! you guys are already stealing her away from our group?!"Sasha whined with a pout, no one noticed her coming back but she certainly made a dramatic entrance.

"you guys are our friends too, you'll see her when we all hang out together" Bertholdt said in attempt to make the girl feel better.

"but you don't hang out with us that much either, we probably won't see Annie again if she joined your group for all we know" Eren joined in Sasha's whining.

"calm down, Jaeger. we came here to actually see if you guys would like to meet up for the weekend but since you want to be like that, we'll just go" Reiner teased before turning around and pretending to leave.

"no wait! we want to hang out,come back!" Eren dropped his childish whining.

"good" Reiner smirked and faced them gain. "party at my house, Saturday night. don't invite anyone before telling us" 

"Annie you're coming right?" Eren asked.

"i don't know, I'll have to ask first" she shrugged, she knew Hanji and Levi probably wouldn't say no but she wanted a backup plan incase she changed her mind later.

"let's exchange numbers so you can confirm it later then" Armin suggested.

numbers? she didn't know what they meant by that. should she ask? no they'll probably laugh at her.

"i don't remember mine" she responsed, she hoped they'd buy it and won't question it. 

"oh that's alright, we can just give you our numbers then you can text us so we can have yours" he fished out a pen and paper and was already putting his number on it then passed it along the table for everyone else to put theirs.

when the paper stopped at Annie, she scanned the numbers in hopes of getting a hint on what the numbers could mean but they were all random and didn't make much sense. she'd ask Hanji about it later.

looking again, she saw everyone had put in some symbols next to their names, Historia had a hear and smiley face, Ymir had a crude drawing of what she assumed is a perverted face. Sasha had some small food drawings, Connie had the same but different drawings, Marco had a simple smiley face.

Eren had a face with sunglasses and appearently crossed out Armin's drawing and drew a face with glasses instead, he also wrote Mikasa's number with a scarf wearing girl next to it. he also crossed out Jean's drawing and drew a horse face instead.

she simply looked at them with a face that just said 'seriously?' and everyone just grinned. well, almost everyone.

Mikasa didn't look too pleased.

x

Annie walked home after school was over, she had the misfortune of sharing all of her classes with Mikasa and they even had been paired together as lab partners.

it wasn't that Mikasa was a bad student, she was way better than Annie of course. she could just not do her part of the assignments and Mikasa would finish them on her own just to save her own grades.

the problem was, Mikasa hated her.

Annie genuinely tried to be civil in class with her, for the sake of their grades but Mikasa had told her to 'go fuck yourself, Leonhardt' then proceeded to change seats with a girl named Mina, which she also recognised from the 104th cadet corps and also saw her corpse.

at least she didn't behave like she did with Marco, Mina seemed to like her and even offered to be her partner instead of Mikasa if the teacher allowed it.

they hadn't got a chance to ask but Mina told her they could ask tomorrow. 

Annie went to open the door but as soon as hand touched the doorknob, it went flying open. Hanji pulled her in excitedly and started asking a bunch of questions all at once, thankfully Levi was there to shut her up.

he looked at her and said "didn't get into any trouble i hope"

she smiled and shrugged. he sighed and pulled the hyper scientist to the livingroom and Annie followed.

"what's a number?" she asked suddenly. and both adults paused.

"I'm pretty sure you know what numbers are, brat" Levi raised an eyebrow.

Annie facepalmed at the question she blurted out and went to explain how Armin asked to exchange numbers with everyone else and that she didn't know what that was but pretended that she did.

"-and now they gave me a paper with all of their 'numbers' on it and i don't know what to do with it" she finished.

"ooh they asked for your phone number" Hanjo said.

"phone number? what's that?" Annie asked confused.

Hanji simply took out her phone from her pocket. "it's a device that is used for contact and entertainment, to identify who you are talking to you'd need their number" 

"okay, what's texting then? they told me to text them about if i was going to join them for something" 

"it's basically writing short messages to people and they are delivered instantly, no need to write letters unless for fomalities here" Hanji replied. "what did they ask you to join?"

"they wanted me to go to a party at one of their houses" Annie shrugged.

Hanji gasped. "not even one day and you're already getting invited to parties, you need to be prepared for what's going to happen if you're planning on going"

"it's just a gathering, nothing will happen" Annie dismissed.

"oh it's different times Annie, it won't be the same parties as the ones back then. come on Levi we'll educate you well on what happens during these parties" Hanji laughed somewhat evilly as she urged Levi to join her.

at the end Annie didn't know what she regretted more, agreeing to a party or telling Hanji about it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The chapter was all about Annie meeting everyone and being awkward. And poor Marco, he was just being nice but Annie can't handle seeing him  
> Also yes Annie will be hanging out with bert and reiner. The BRA squad is back!  
> Also mikasa is being such a jerk isn't she? Why is that?  
> Please share your thoughts  
> The comments make me write faster ;)


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is like twice as long as the others  
> Have a suprise for you guys in it ;)  
> It may be a little rushed but i don't really want to re write it  
> So enjoy :)

Annie knew she'd regret ever agreeing to attend a party, but she went ahead and did it anyway. now she sat in the middle of Reiner and bertholdt's living room with a wasted historia in her lap.

said girl was sitting sideways and had her arms wrapped tightly around Annie's torso with her head buried in Annie's neck, it wasn't the most comfortable position to be in and Annie could feel her beck start to cramp up.

Reiner, Connie and Sahsa were sitting on the table playing strip poker, it was clear that none of them knew how to play by their state of undress. Jean was having a pointless argument with Eren about who was better looking, they both looked pretty gross and embarrassing in their current states, they both had been dared to put on make up during a game of truth and dare, Marco was trying helplessly to calm them down before a fight broke out.

Ymir sat angrily in a corner because her precious Historia had abandoned her for Annie, Bertholdt sat next to her nervously and was trying to make her cheer up and feel better about it but she just gave him snarky remarks and sassy insults.

poor Armin was passed out on the couch with a half full can of beer in his hands, slightly tipping over but it didn't cause it to spill. 

Mikasa was nowhere to be seen. she was probably outside getting some fresh air, Annie would have joined her if it weren't for the fact that Mikasa hated her or the little blonde in her lap that was refusing to let go.

she blinked and rubbed her eyes trying to recall the events that led to this situation.

x

Annie was dropped off by Hanji at the house, she would've walked there but she didn't really know her way around.

she let herself in when no one answered the door. everyone had arrived before Annie and they had already started the party, Reiner was walking around and shoving drinks into everyone's hands, some of them seemed drunk already.

she stayed at the door staring at the scene infront of her and wondered if she could turn around and just go back home but Hanji was turning the corner when Annie glanced over her shoulder to check.

"Annie, you came!" Eren exclaimed when he saw her at the doorstep.

"yeah" she replied and stepped inside.

"come on in, we're gonna start a game" he grinned and pointed at the others who were sitting in a circle on the floor and seemed to be waiting for them.

"what are we playing?" she asked curiously.

"spin the bottle" he said and sat down.

Annie was about to ask how to play this game but decided not to and to simply observe until she figured it out.

it was a really simple game, Annie understood the rules and how turns are took, now she hoped the bottle wouldn't land on her.

it landed on her.

she looked boredly at Reiner who had a cheeky smirk on his face.

"Annie, truth or dare?" he asked.

"hm, i choose dare" better to do a silly dare than to be asked something she didn't want to answer.

"I'll start you off easy, here drink this in one go" he held a bottle of beer in his hand.

she rolled her eyes and took it from him, uncapped it and swung it to drink. 

"woo yeah Annie!" Connie cheered. 

"that was lame" Annie said wiping the corner of her mouth.

"yeah but that's what you had to do, I'm sure the others will be more creative with their dares" Reiner laughed. "Anyway it's your turn to spin the bottle"

the bottle landed on Sasha. Annie smirked.

"truth or dare, Sasha?" she asked.

"dare!" Sasha said confidently.

"i dare you not to eat for the rest of the game" she said with a smug smirk.

Sasha screamed in horror and clutched the bag of chips in her lap. "how could you do this to meeee!" she wailed and brought the snacks around her for a hug.

"nice work Annie, now this bottomless pit won't be eating all the food we brought" Jean smirked.

when Sasha was done being angsty about her food, she spun the bottle and it landed on Connie. "truth or dare Connie" 

"dare!" he answered stupiditly not noticing the evil glint in Sasha's eyes.

"if i can't eat then you can't eat either!" she announced loudly. "i dare you not to eat for the rest of the game too!" 

"aw what the hell! stop being so petty" he argued.

"nope!" she crossed her arms and looked away with a hmph.

"ugh!" 

the game continued like this, Connie dared Eren to put on a skirt. Eren dared Jean to put make up on his face, Historia was all too happy to help with that. Jean had Historia next and she asked for a dare, Jean didn't really want to be mean to her even if he was still feeling pissed about Eren's dare and was going to vent it out on the person the battle landed on. he would get his revenge when his turn lands him with Eren again.

"i dare you to uhh ..." he looked around to help him find a dare. "sit on Annie's lap for the rest of the game" 

"what?" Annie raised an eyebrow

"No!!" Ymir cut in and glared at Jean with loath. "Historia isn't sitting on anyone's lap but mine" 

"that isn't up for you to decide" he retorted. "she has to do it"

"i will do it" Historia said suprisingly. "if only you don't mind, Annie"

"no it's okay" she shook her head.

"great" Historia beamed and crawled across the circle while Annie adjusted her position.

Annie blushed lightly as Historia pressed back into her and made herself comfortable against Annie's shoulder. it made it awkward to have Ymir's piercing gaze directed at her too.

their eyes met and Annie glared back with a look that made Ymir turn her eyes away. she wasn't about to let her think she can intimidate her.

it was Historia's turn to spin and it landed on Mikasa, she chose dare like everyone else.

"um give me a second to think" Historia asked. Mikasa just nodded.

Annie smirked and whispered something in Historia's ear, ignoring the squinted eyes of Ymir and Mikasa.

"ooh that's too mean Annie" Historia giggled and swatted her shoulder.

"its a good one though" Annie just shrugged.

"okay then. Mikasa, i dare you to not to say 'Eren' for the rest of the game"

"ooooh" everyone said.

Mikasa glared darkly at them, at one of them in particular. Annie just gave her a smug smile and said. "i wasn't the one who dared you"

"moving on! Mikasa it's your turn to spin" Reiner pointed at the bottle.

the game ended after a few turns when Ymir announced that she was getting bored and suggested that they spice up the game a bit.

the new game was going to be the same spin the bottle but it won't be truth or dare.

"you'll have to kiss whoever your spin lands on until one of you feels too uncomfortable and pulls away" she suggested with a smirk.

"so that means anyone could kiss your precious Historia and you cant say anything about it" Connie said.

"no, Historia is not playing" she said firmly.

"you can't decide that for me" Historia glared. "it isnt your choice to make" 

"but-" 

"no! i don't want to play anymore" Historia stood up and stomped her way to thr kitchen angrily. ymir tried to go after her but she was stopped bu Armin.

"i think you should let her cool off alone for a little while" he said gently.

the others wanted to avoid the awkwardness by starting the game. Marco and Bertholdt were up first, it was weird at first but the two found that they liked it quite a lot and quick got into it.  
it was broken off when the others felt it was taking too long, Jean was kind of upset because his boyfriend liked kissing someone else who wasn't him

next up were Eren and Jean, the kiss didn't even last 10 seconds before the two went flying with disgust and were gagging and spitting out the taste from their mouths.

after that, it was Armin and Reiner. they lasted way more than Eren and Jean but Armin was too embarrassed to go on more than two and a half minutes.

Historia was back after that round, Ymir attempted to apologise but it was clear that Historia was giving her the silent treatment.  
she sat next to Annie instead of her lap, just until the game was done at least.

the next couple were Sasha and Connie, the two were all too happy to kiss. Sasha pulled away after a few minutes saying that tasting food on Connie's lips made her hungry.

Ymir was silently prying to get Historia in her spin but she got Bertholdt, she complained about getting the sweaty giant and having to kiss him but it was only a peck before she shoved him away.

Mikasa spun and it landed on Annie.  
"no. I'm not kissing her, I'm spinning again"

"you can't do that, it's the rules" Eren yelled. he was still salty about having to kiss Jean. "you have to do it" 

both girls glared at each other and the tension was getting a little thick.

"isn't it getting hot? I'm turning on the Air Conditioner" Marco stated.

"come on, get on with it" Eren told Mikasa.

"fine" she growled and crawled forward to stop infront of Annie. "if you touch me I'll break your nose"

"whatever"

their lips met in a heated kiss, teeth grinding against each other, biting and pulling. Annie's hand went to rest on Mikasa's waist to stabilise her but she got a harsh bite on her bottom lip in warning.

she ignored it and let her fingers rest flat on Mikasa's abdomen and very lighlty moved it up, she felt Mikasa's body go very still before sharp nails dug into her shoulder roughly.

Annie grunted but decided that she would push her luck a little further to see what happens, she rested her palms on Mikasa's ribcage just barely under her breasts. 

Mikasa went stiff and pulled back to punch Annie in the face. 

"what the fuck is wrong with you?!" Annie yelled holding her nose, blood was flowing out rapidly.

"i-i told you I'd break your nose if you touched me" Mikasa looked away hiding her blush, it was bothered her that it wouldn't go away.

"fuck you" Annie spat and got up to head for the kitchen, she could feel the blood stop and steam hitting her nose. dammit they can't see that.

"did you really have to do that?" she could hear Eren's annoyed voice as she walked away.

Annie washed off the blood and was relived to see that none of it got on her hoodie. she stayed by the sink for a few minutes just so it wouldn't look suspious that her nose healed so fast.

she went back to the others to see that they already moved on from the game, they were doing their own thing now.

Sasha and Connie were stuffing their faces with food, their dares finally over, they ate like they haven't eaten for a week.

Reiner was back to giving out beer to everyone, he saw Annie come back and made sure that she drank at least two in a row to loosen her up, she appearently still looked pissed about that punch.

Historia was with him and it was obvious that she drank way more than she should. she was hanging off Reiner's arm to maintain her balance and she was giggling uncontrollably for no reason. Annie was sure tha Reiner's jokes were not that funny.

it looked like she was also still giving her girlfriend the cold shoulder since Ymir was sulking against a wall.

"A-Anniee!" Historia smiled brightly and lunged at the girl to give her a tight hug. "i missed youu" 

"how many drinks did you have?" Annie raised an eyebrow and pulled at the arms to get away.

"oh i don't know" Historia giggled. "a few"

"you're drunk" Annie deadpanned and stopped her struggle when she saw that the girl was not letting go anytime soon.

"you're warm" Historia stepped even closer to the other blonde.

it was true, Annie was warm, all titan shifters had higher body temperature than a normal human. it was a survival mechanism, the temperature would rise in cold weather or when the shifter was injured or drunk. Annie had just had her nose broken and had drank two bottles of beer so her body still hasn't cooled down yet.

"um yeah" she responded awkwardly taking a step back, but the shorter girl just followed. 

"it's nice" Historia hummed and leaned her body fully on Annie's which resulted in dragging both girls down because of the extra weight that Annie had to deal with.

Historia wasted no time when they reached the ground and crawled on Annie's lap and smiled in content. 

Annie just sighed and rubbed her eyes, she was still too sober for this shit.

x

'oh yeah, that's what happened' Annie thought looking at the now sleeping girl in her lap. she effortlessly picked her up and went to lay her down on the couch next to Armin.

since everyone has either been knocked out or is doing something stupid Annie decided to go outside and look for a certain black haired girl.

she found her in the backyard, sitting on the ground and looking up at the stars.

"mind if i join you?" Annie stood behind her.

Mikasa looked up at her before shrugging and looking away. Annie sat down quietly.

"it's cold, what are you doing out here alone?" Annie asked to break the awkward silence.

"i felt like being alone" Mikasa responded dryly.

Annie saw that this conversation was going nowhere, it was useless to beat around the bush any longer.

"why do you hate me, Mikasa?" Annie asked.

"i don't hate you" 

"oh yeah? well you certainly could've fooled me" Annie laughed sarcastically.

"i don't" Mikasa insisted.

"then why did you punch me like that back there?!"

"you just.. pissed me off okay?!" Mikasa glared and looked the other direction to hide her blush, she was thankful that it was dark enough to hide her face.

"what did i ever do to you?" Annie asked confused.

"i.. i don't know" she admitted with a defeated sigh. "you just piss me off"

"wow" Annie rolled her eyes. "what a good reason"

"shut up"

"did you not like the kiss?" Annie asked after a few minutes of silence, she was pretty satisfied with the reaction she got.

"what no! i did! i mean i didn't! i mean-" Mikasa blushed bright red, she glared darkly at the laughing blonde next to her and shoved her. "you jerk"

Annie snorted and said "whatever, you liked it" 

"i didn't" Mikasa squinted angrily.

"sure, whatever you say" Annie shrugged. "hey can i use your phone for a second?" 

"no." Mikasa said bluntly. "why?"

"come on, i just need to call my ride home" Annie scowled. "I'm not spending the night here"

"why don't you use yours?"

"i don't have one okay?! now give it to me" Annie said annoyed and reached for Mikasa's pocket.

"fine! and don't touch me" Mikasa slapped Annie's hand away and took her phone put of her pocket.

Annie took took it from her hands and fished a slip of paper from her pocket that contained Hanji, Levi and Erwin's numbers messily scribbled on it.

she paused and squinted at the sloppy numbers, Hanji's handwriting was not the best. she should've asked Levi to write them down instead.

"what's taking so long?!" Mikasa asked im paitently.

"hold on, I'm done putting the numbers in" Annie put the phone to her ear and waited.

Mikasa watched Annie go through a conversation with an angry sounding guy who appearently cursed alot, Annie responded with just as much sass as the guy she was talking to.

"thanks Mikasa" Annie said after she hung up and handed the phone back to it's owner before standing up and dusting her pants.

"it's fine, when are you leaving?" Mikasa also stood up to follow Annie inside.

"five minutes" 

"oh." Mikasa didn't know why but she was slightly dissappointed.

"what's up with you?" Annie picked up on the change of mood and raised an eyebrow.

"oh nothing"

"you sure?" 

"yes" Mikasa nodded.

"okay then" Annie shrugged and went inside only to be stopped by a panicked Reiner. 

"Annie!" he grabbed her shoulders.

"what do you want" she glared at him for startling her.

"why is there a cop at the door asking for you?" he asked nervously.

a cop? she didn't do anything illegal, and why are they only asking for her?

"let's go see"

Levi stood at the door with his arms crossed and an annoyed look on his face. he clearly didn't like to be stared at by a drunk Eren who was looking at him with a dreamy look on his face. 

Mikasa didn't like it either as it seems.

"hurry up, i have better things to do than be here" Levi said when he saw Annie.

"like what?" 

"none of your business brat, now let's go" he said and walked outside to his car.

"how do you know him Annie?!" Eren exclaimed after Levi left. "can you introduce me to him?!" 

"i live with him and no, I'm not introducing you to him" 

"please? pretty please?" he pouted.

"no, and go wipe that ridiculous make up off your face" 

"no i like it" he huffed, he was sick of people telling him his pretty makeup looked ridiculous.

"Eren go clean your face" Mikasa said firmly.

"no! i like it!" he exclaimed stubbornly before running away into the other room leaving the two behind.

"i should go after him" Mikasa sighed.

"no you don't"

there was a loud honk from outside, signalling that Levi was threatening to leave without her.

"I'll be going now but i wanna do something before i go" Annie said.

"what's that?" 

"this" Annie smirked and leaned up to kiss Mikasa on the lips, she felt the girl freeze in suprise. Annie smirked before pulling back.

"that's the kiss i couldn't finish because of your punch" Annie teased before leaving the house.

Mikasa stood at the door in the same frozen state and watched as the car Annie was in dissappeared down the road.

she touched her lips with her fingertips and felt her face get warm.

x

"you never told me you were a cop" Annie said in the car.

"I'm not, your dumb friends just assumed that" he answered. 

"what is your job then?" she asked.

"your babysitter appearently" he retorted.

"I'm serious" she scowled.

"you don't look like it with that lipstick mark on your mouth" he smirked.

"what?!" she looked into the window and there was indeed a bright pink stain of chapstick on her upped and bottom lips.

she blushed a bright pink and hurriedly wiped it off, she wondered if Mikasa relised how messy her lipgloss had gotten.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What did you think of THAT  
> Two kisses in one chapter lol  
> Again, it may have been a little rushed but i wanted the story to go a little faster  
> Tell me what you thought of this chapter


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright this is the last "filler" chapter for now.  
> I'll have things pick up and get intresting soon.  
> But for now, enjoy Annie's awkward times as a "normal" student.  
> Enjoy :)

after that party it seemed to Annie like she could finally get along with Mikasa. of course she that wasn't the case.

it seemed like Mikasa disliked her even more than before. she honestly thought that they may have passed that but apparently they haven't.

Annie sat in their shared class alone in the last row staring at Mikasa's back, the girl had been avoiding her ever since the party and Annie didn't know why. and Mikasa refused to acknowledge her whenever she was around, so asking was out of question.

she sighed, laying her head down on the table and closing her eyes. she knew nothing of what the teacher was talking about and she had nothing else better to do, so might as well take a nap.

Annie was just about to slip into unconsciousness when she felt something poke her side. she narrowed her eyes at whoever dared and touched her but felt herself relax then stiffen.

Mina sat herself next to Annie and was looking at her with a smile. "hey Annie"

it looked like Annie wasn't going to get any sleep, she lifted her head up and sat straight. "hey Mina" 

"do you have anything planned after school?" Mina asked with a hopeful smile.

"kinda"

of course Annie didn't have anything planned, she was just going home and sulk with Levi all day but wasn't about to let the other girl have a chance at inviting her to something with no way out.

"oh, well me and some friends are holding a small study group after school and i was wondering if you'd like to join" 

Annie weighted her options, she could either stay at home with Levi and Hanji and be broody with Levi, she would be comfortable and not obligated to socialise with anyone and she wouldn't have to keep her act of being normal around a bunch of people she may have killed in their.. past lives? Annie didn't really want to look into it.

or she could accept the offer as she actually needed all help she could get in school. math and physics were simple enough, it was just a bunch of formulas that needed to be memorized and a good feel of analysing to pass those two subjects. it was strange but luckily for Annie, History was all about the titan's era, Annie didn't need to study it to excel at it, she was already there when it happened and she was taught all about it back home when she was a kid.

chemistry and Biology were different stories, it was an entirely new territory that Annie had stepped in. she had never heard of this new technology and new discoveries. she knew basic human and animal anatomy, some minerals found in nature but she couldn't wrap her head around all the scientific terms used in her books.

"who's going to be there?" she asked.

"i invited Armin, Marco, Bertholdt and a guy named Marlo. im sure most of them would invite some of their friends though" 

she knew Marlo. at least she knew Marlo back then, but since everyone seems to be somewhat similar to the people from year 850, this Marlo wouldn't be any different. and it may be safe to assume Hitch would be making an appearance with him.

she honestly missed those two.

"Alright I'll come" she agreed. "when and where will everyone be?"

"after school in the library"

"okay, thanks for inviting me Mina" Annie smiled lightly.

"it's nothing really, we'd love to have you join" Mina placed her hand lightly on Annie's arm with a smile.  
"since we aren't doing anything in class right now, would you like me to help you with today's lesson?" she offered.

"yes please"

"let's start then, here come closer so we can both look at the book" Mina moved her chair closer to Annie's so none of them would have any trouble reading, theit arms were pressed together and they settled in comfortably. not aware of the piercing gaze from across the room.

Mikasa heard the conversation ever since it started and it was irritating her for no reason, was it that Armin hadn't invited her and Eren about the study group? no, Armin went to a lot of study groups that he never told them about. 

she didn't know what bothered her about the conversation but she didn't like how close those two were sitting together. she also didn't like the little subtle touches Mina was having occasionally.

she was going to talk to Armin later, she was going to this study group.

x

break had started five minutes ago and Mikasa made her way to Armin's locker, she knew he always went there before joining them at their table. 

there he was, calmly exchanging the books in his bag for the ones in his locker, unsuspecting of the figure lurking directly behind him.

Armin turned around and knocked into Mikasa who didn't even stumble.

"oh, Mikasa, what are you doing here?" he asked confused. "your last class was at the opposite side of the building" 

it was unusual of her to come to this side, having no classes here, her locker was not on this side either. why would she come here to seek him out instead of just meeting him at their lunch table.

"Armin." she started "i want to come to your study group today"

straight to the point, as always.

"are you sure? you and Eren aren't usually interested in studying after school, at least Eren isn't and well, you don't really agree to going somewhere without him" he said nervously.

"i want to come" she said firmly leaving no room for discussion.

"if you insist, we're gathering at the library after school" he replied.

"I'll be there" she nodded then turned around to head to the cafeteria. "you coming, Armin?" she asked.

"yeah just a second!" he picked up his bag from the floor and picked up his pace to follow.

x

Mikasa and Armin were the first to arrive, everyone else came together in groups or pairs. they sat at the biggest table in the middle of the library.

Marco had invited Jean as expected. Marlo dragged Hitch along with him which the girl was obviously not happy about and was not really hiding it. Bertholdt hadn't invited Reiner suprisingly.

everyone had settled in expect for two, Annie and Mina.

Mikasa didn't know why she kept glancing at the door every five minutes, she could hear the others talking but she tuned them out.

the door burst open and Mina came in dragging Annie by the wrist with a giggle. Mikasa's eyes narrowed with a scowl.

"we were just talking about you two! why were you late?" Marco said with a friendly smile.

"Annie got lost and i went to find her" Mina replied looking at Annie with a smirk. Annie just shrugged.

"well sit down, we were about to start without you" Marlo said picking up his book.

"ooh this is the new student!" Hitch raised her head from the table when she recognised Annie. "come sit here, new kid" she excitedly bounced in her seat and gestured to the empty seat next to her.

"I'll sit with Mina, thanks" Annie replied.

"aw please?!" Hitch pouted.

"n-"

"we'll both sit next to you" Mina cut off and advanced further into the room while still pulling Annie behind her. Mikasa noticed that she hadn't let go of her wrist yet and it made her feel annoyed for some reason.

"all right, we're all here so let's do our usual thing and split into groups or pairs. if there's a particular subject you're having trouble with you can see who wants to study the same thing" Armin said when everyone was seated, mainly to Annie, Hitch and Mikasa who were not informed how the study group worked.

Armin, Marco, Marlo and Bertholdt were studying Advanced calculus together. 'what a bunch of nerds' Mikasa thought.

Jean was simply copying the boy's homework and scrolling on his phone, he was just here because he didn't want to do any work on the weekend.

Mikasa looked at the other side of the table where Annie sat in between Hitch and Mina. they had several chemistry books infront of them and Mina was actually making an effort to explain the lessons in great detail, while Hitch mainly just laid on the table and asked Annie random and useless questions.

she didn't like how close those two sat together, at all. Annie was sitting straight but not stiffly, she looked at the words in her book intensely and her eyebrows furrowed as she digested the information being explained to her.

Mina on the other hand, had her seat way too close to Annie's, there was no space between them. and she was leaning into Annie's side in order to look into the book and point at it for her, but that resulted in Mina basically resting on Annie's shoulder for it to be a comfortable position to look at both Annie and the book.

oh and comfortable she was.

Mikasa didn't relise she was glaring at them until Annie looked up at her and raised an eyebrow.

"um would you like to join us, Mikasa?" Mina asked when she noticed that Annie wasn't paying attention anymore.

"no no, I'm fine" she muttered and broke eye contact to look in a random book she picked up.

it went on like this for the rest of this study session, with Mikasa's eyes unconsciously drifting from her book to glaring at the couple infront of her. and whenever Annie was fed up with her staring she'd look up and glare right back at her which resulted in Mikasa averting her gaze to her book grumpily.

seeing those two gave her a nasty feeling, and she didn't like it.

x

Annie went home after around 5pm, and the moment she opened the door she was greeted by a frantic Hanji.

"where have you been?!" Hanji grabbed Annie by the shoulders.

"school." 

"what were you doing there?" she asked.

"a.. friend asked me to join their study group and help me with my lessons" Annie replied.

"oh." Hanji sighed in relif. "i thought something happened, i was ready to call Erwin" 

"what could happen that you'd need to call Erwin ?" Annie raised an eyebrow.

"oh uh... nothing" Hanji waved it off with a nervous laugh.

"is something going on?" Annie asked suspiously.

"nothing!" Hanji insisted.

"okay then" Annie shrugged and was about to walk Past Hanji and to the stairs.

"wait a minute, we need to tell you something" Levi said coming into the room.

"I'm listening" 

"we need to know where you are at all times, or at least have an idea where" he said.

"ok" she agreed, not like she was going to wander off on her own anyway.

"no, we mean we need to be informed if you're going somewhere or are going to be late after school like today" he said.

"and how am i supposed to tell you that I'll be late when I'm at school?" she asked.

"with this!" Hanji retrieved a phone from her pocket and held it up.

Annie knew what it is, everyone seemed to have something similar to it. and it wasn't just adults or teenagers, even children seemed to have this device with them.

"i talked to Erwin about getting you one so we can contact you with no problems" Hanji continued. "i saved mine, Levi and Erwin's numbers in it for you incase you needed us"

"um thanks" Annie said, she took the phone in her hand and examined it, she remembered that paper she was given that had everyone's numbers.

"make sure to keep the GPS turned on at all time" Levi said. "that way we could easily find you"

"ok, is this all?" she asked.

"one last thing!" Hanji grinned. "try calling me, i wanna show you something cool"

Annie took about 5 minutes to call Hanji's number and when she finally did, a customised ringtone came from Hanji's phone.

Annie didn't understand what was so amusing to Hanji about it but she understood once she heard the lyrics blasting through the speakers.

she sweatdropped and looked at Levi who was pinching the bridge of his nose in effort not to bonk Hanji on the head.

Annie ended the call and that silenced the song that was repeating on Hanji's phone.

"pretty cool song huh?" Hanji wheezed. "you could listen to it on your phone if you want, it's called 'smooth criminal' by Michael Jackson" 

"i.. think I'll pass on that" Annie shook her head and walked away heading to her room.

Annie spent the rest of the day tinkering around on her phone and going through the apps that Hanji downloaded and the settings to figure out how it worked. she admitted that it was really impressive technology.  
she saved everyone's number in her phone but left them without emojis.

and she was actually curious about that song so she actually looked it up, she found that she quite liked the idea of music.

that song wasn't so bad.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What have we got here hmm, Mikasa seems to be getting jelly for some reason ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°).  
> And Starting next chapter, Annie goes through an Emo phase!!  
> Just jk lol  
> Im sure you all knew which part of the song Hanji had as her ringtone for Annie thought.  
> If not, it's the:
> 
> "Annie are you ok  
> So Annie are you ok  
> Are you ok Annie"
> 
> I couldn't help myself and put it there, i always thought it was a funny joke and i hope it was amusing.  
> Stay tuned for the next chapters.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm SO SORRY i forgot about this story and that's why i haven't updated in a while.  
> Luckily chapter 102 of SNK reminded me and helped me write this chapter a lot.
> 
> *Warning*  
> HEAVY MANGA SPOILERS AND THEORIES.  
> Do NOT read this if you arent ok with spoilers.
> 
> Enjoy.

Annie laid in her bed late at night just remembering events that happened in the past two weeks. she's been feeling a little uneasy lately but she didn't know why. danger was not really common now, at least nothing that annie could compare to the past.

but she couldn't shake the feeling off, she felt like something was just lurking around the corner and waiting for the right moment, the moment Annie dreaded to come.

she's been having more nightmares about her titan too, the dreams were trying to send her a message but Annie was too terrified to think about them, much less analysis what they could mean.

it was always the same dream though, her titan would be standing before her in an oversized frame, it was around the size of the colossus titan in her dreams and it always catches her before she even tried to run away.

it would close it's palms around her and Annie would wake up in cold sweat. and today was no different.

sighing, Annie got uplenty from the bed,giving up on getting any sleep for the rest of the night. might as well do something else while she was awake.

the time read 1:48AM, she couldn't do anything around the house as in not to wake Hanji and Levi. 

Annie decided to go outside and walk around, it was a weekend so there was no school to worry about.

she put on shoes and was about to leave put the door when she remembered that she had to take her phone everywhere with her. she went back to retrieve it and went on her way.

x

Annie was starting to know her way around a bit more, she no longer got lost and was able to navigate her way home on her own, she also found a shorter route to school when she was walking around the other day.

she walked around the corner and headed for a nearby coffee shop that was almost always open for some reason? Annie didn't care about that though, she only cared that they had great Donuts and limeade.

Annie sat in the park eating her donut, the place was dark and really cold, she was glad she always wore a hoodie because it would've been stupid of her to go out in the middle of the night with no jacket.

she took in the scenery and exhaled a shaky breath, this place was somehow a bit scarier than the titan filled forest back in 850. it seemed like she'd never get fully used to living here, even though she seemed to blend in well.

Annie sensed a presence behind her not too far away but didn't make any move to turn around and check, it could be just some random person walking around. no big deal.

but the footsteps stopped directly behind Annie. and Annie waited.

nothing happened, she heard a faint whisper before the figure turned away and left.

Annie chose that moment to look back and saw the figure walking away to meet up with a group of shady people at the side of a building before walking away together.

she wanted to follow and investigate but it gave her a bad vibe, that she should stay away. and it was also almost time for her to be getting ready for school anyway.

Annie arrived at the house one minute before her useless alarm started, she went about her normal routine of getting dressed and shoving things in her bag before going downstairs to leave.

Hanji sat downstairs on the couch looking clean and formal, and so was Levi. what puzzled Annie though was that Hanji never woke up at this time of the day for anything, even if she did, she would look terrible and not at all like she did now.

she waited for an explanation by the door, she soon got it when the pair stood up and annouced that she was not going to school today.

"why though? i haven't done anything yet" she asked.

"don't worry, you aren't in trouble. Erwin just called and he wanted you to come to the station to meet someone" Hanji replied.

"oh? and who's that?" Annie raised an eyebrow.

"you'll see. now let's go, we're wasting time" Levi said and walked away without another word. and both followed.

x

the station had the same feeling of discomfort as the last time she was here, Annie was being escorted to a different part of it this time. 

most of these hallways were empty with no doors, it was just one long passway to one single door at the end. Annie wondered who could be waiting at the other side of the door.

she didn't have to wait long because two minutes later they were infront of it and ready to go inside.

it was a lab, various tubes and containers littered around the tables. she briefly glimpsed a a few tubes with her name on them.

"Hanji, glad to see you make it on time for once" a voice from a near chair said. it caused cold chills to go down Annie's spine. she knew that voice.

Zeke Jaeger. he spun around in his chair and gave a smile to everyone in the room.  
Annie shivered, she hated that smile.

"of course i would, this is an important discovery on our part" Hanji answered enthusiastically. "now Annie, you might be wondering why we brought you here. don't worry, we arent running experiements on you" 

"yea because you are already done anyway" Levi commented annoyed.

"shush Levi!" Hanji smiled. "but yes, we're already done. we took samples from you when you were still unconscious when we found you and were running experiments to fin out the secrets of your Titan powers"

"but everything is already documented about it from when i was still in year 850"

"yes but you see Annie, scientists like me and Hanji don't belive in magic, gods and devils. we arent convinced that your powers came from that so we did our own research here in the lab using your DNA and documents from even before you were born-" Zeke said.

"and we found some really interesting things" Hanji finished. "we might have finally discovered the true existence of the Titans"

"take a seat. it'll be long before we're done" 

"ok starting by the history that you've been taught, they have taught you in Marley that your powers existed by a deal from the Earth Devil to Ymir Fritz, she has become the first Titan and was called The Founding Titan by her followers. but of course no deal with a devil comes with no trick, thus explaining a titan shifter's death after 13 years.

Ymir Fritz's death resulted in her soul being split into 9 parts to keep the titan power through generations, sadly every titan shifter died after the same amount of time as Ymir Fritz so no one could outlive her. the powers only appearing in Eldian children otherwise known as subjects of Ymir or the children of the devil according to Marleyan documents.

how to create mindless titans and titan shifters have been explained as we might assume you know. so we do not need to go over that. let's jump in straight to our theories and discoveries.

it might seem like the original story is belivable but there are plenty of holes that needs to be answered. we answered them by the help of some notes and documents from an Eldian Shifter and an undercover Marleyan solider. his name is Eren Kruger.

he claims that the Marleyan Army fabricated this myth in order to stain the reputation of Ymir Fritz. and that she had discovered the source of all living matter, in other words DNA. he believes that she had perfected DNA engineering and was working on mutating human DNA with animals such as dinosaurs and elephants, huge and strong DNA mixed into a person resulted in the existence of the Titans.

but it was not only DNA manipulation that she had made, after her death that DNA evolved and became stronger that it became a virus. effective against only a handful people because Ymir hadn't wanted the Power to fall into thr hands of others than her people.

the virus multiplies and lives off the cells of their host, AKA the titan shifters and when the host is spent, the virus moves on to another one to live off. such as babies because of their weak immune systems, unless they were already consumed by another host." 

Annie sat in her seat speechless, that made sense. but why had she not died of the virus yet?

"we know what you're thinking" Hanji said cheekily. "we have an explanation for that too"

"your condition is obviously different since you've lived beyond 13 years by a huge amount." Zeke said. "our theory's conclusion is that you have already died but have been resurrected by the very same virus that killed you"

"what?!" Annie exclaimed.

"they think you're dead" Levi deadpanned.

"WAS dead, Levi" Hanji grinned.

"whatever same thing"

"not really, actually-"

"can it four-eyes, just say why you and blond four-eyes think so"

"ok, looking into this book written by someone called Armin Arlert. Annie was actually mentioned a lot and in detail in there"

everyone directed their gaze at Annie for an explanation. she felt the colours in her face drain at the name.

"h-he.. was with me in the 104th cadet corps when i and a two other comrades broke into Eldia, he was also the one who discovered my identity as the female titan" she swallowed thickly.

"do you want to know what happened to your comrades, Annie?" Zeke asked with a wicked smile.

"n-no" she stuttered nervously. 

"enough, leave that for later" Hanji said firmly to her partner.

"fine fine. but you can always ask if you want, kiddo" he smirked evilly.

Annie frowned.

"just tell us why you think she used to be dead" Levi scowled.

"according to the book, Annie was crystallized after she had lost during a fight against another titan shifter and a failed attempt to run away by climbing the wall. it says that Annie seemed to be unconscious when the titan ripped open the nape of her titan.

it was later written in the book that other titan shifters are capable of this skill and that they could break out of it at will since it may be a a form of being in titan form.  
that led us to believe that she may have been simply in a comatose state but they have never been able to wake her up or break her crystal without the risk of hurting her. 

the titan's power could only keep her alive for so long. Annie may have died after her time was up but the virus could not move on to another host while being stuck inside the crystal. so it did what any desperate living creature do, it was repairing the dead cells very slowly while still allowing itself to nourish from them. 

the time that Annie's crystal broke may be when the virus had completely resurrected it's host"

"wow..." Annie exhaled after holding her breath during all of Hanji's theory. "so I'm still going to die soon?"

"well since it's been revealed to be a virus instead of a curse, not necessarily. it could be cured." 

"really?" Annie couldn't help but get hopeful.

"we'll see, we know that the virus is still spreading but not where. there is deaths of thirteen year old children every thirteen years, no one could figure out why but now we do. we could stop it"

Annie's heart thumped loudly in her chest, she could live! it was a small chance, and it would take a long time but she could live!

"can i... can i read that book? the one by Armin Arlert?" Annie asked quietly.

"of course" Hanji smiled gently and handed her the book. "do you want to do it back home? there's no reason for you to be here any longer and im sure your mentally exhausted" 

"yea please" Annie said.

"Levi will take you back home, I'll stay here and look more into the situation"

Levi nodded and stood up, waiting for Annie at the door.

x

the school day hasn't ended yet but Annie didn't feel like going, she just wanted to go home and check on her old comrades. 

she might have been cold and distant with them but she grew up with them, they were like siblings. even though reiner was a shitty one, he still cared in his own messed up way. 

she sat on her bed alone with the book closed infront of her. she was hesitant. and she was nervous. what could have happened?

she took a deep breath and flipped open the cover and looked at the neat handwriting introducing the book. the names brought her so many memories.

Annie was having a hard time continuing to read, she shook and she fought tears. she felt like couldn't breath at times.

by the end of the book Annie was full on sobbing. how could it come to this?

how could all of that happen?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So the snk 102 chapter was very interesting but still no annie.  
> The theory explaining the titan powers link is here, check it out and tell me if you like it or not
> 
> https://youtu.be/iDzOiJMhJzo
> 
> Also, the theory behind Annie's resurrection is my own based on the Legend of Zelda franchise. Link is assumed to be dead and resurrected at every beginning and thats why they start it with him waking up. Its because he died at the end of the previous game and resurrected at the beginning of the next.  
> I just applied that logic to Annie's situation.
> 
> As always, leave a comment with your thoughts.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been in a productive mood lately so i finished this chapter in one day.  
> Hope you enjoy.
> 
> By the way I'm participating in Annieweek in march, was wondering if any of you would like to too.  
> Details are in this post here:  
> http://annieweek.tumblr.com

the next day Annie didn't go to school, or the day after that, or the day after that.

she just stayed at home and sulked, ignoring Hanji's comforting words or Levi's snarky, yet concerned comments.

she also had been ignoring the way her phone kept dinging every two minutes. appearently some one got a hold of her phone number and gave it to the others, and now they wouldn't stop bothering her.

Eren had even dragged Armin and Mikasa to the house and banged on the door until someone came out then demanded to see her. unfortunately for Eren, Levi was the one who answered. Levi had been in a bad mood that day.

he verbally assaulted Eren and threatened him that he'd tie him to a tree in the middle of a forest if came to the house again, then slammed the door in his face.

Annie had been sitting at the top of the stairs when that happened, it actually brightened her mood slightly. she also got a glimpse at Mikasa who was glaring harshly at Levi, it gave her the same kind of chills that the old Mikasa did whenever she glared at her.

she went back to her room before Levi could turn his attention to her. maybe it was time to go back to school.

x

Annie sat in her first class in the very last row next to window with her hoodie pulled up and her head laying on her crossed arms.

she stared outside, it was raining today. she liked the rain. it was quiet peaceful to watch.

she could feel her eyes getting heavy as minutes passed. the quiet and dull atmosphere is soothing. but as she almost drifted to sleep, she felt arms slip around her neck from behind and a body slam into her back. Annie's eyes shot open.

"where have you been this past week?!"

"home." Annie turned her head to the side and stared at the pouting girl on top of her.

"why haven't you replied to any text messages then?" she asked.

Annie simply shrugged.

"I've been worried about you" Mina whined.

"sorry" Annie replied. 

more students have entered the classroom followed by the teacher, class was starting so everyone took their seats.

just as the lesson was about to start, the door slammed open and Eren staggered inside spouting an excuse to why he is late.

the teacher waved him off with a warning and Eren made a beeline for the seat infront of Annie's, he turned around and greeted her with a large grin.

"hey Annie! where have you been this past week?!" 

she gave him a blank stare and gave the same reply she said to Mina.

"well you missed out on a lot, you should join us for lunch today if you wanna be filled in" he gave a hopeful smile.

"who's sitting there?" she asked.

"everyone else except Reiner and Bertholdt, as usual"

she turned to Mina, who was sitting next to her and asked. "do you want to sit with them?" 

"yes, of course"

"great! Mikasa and Armin were waiting for you to come back. well, Armin is" Eren shrugged before facing forward.

what would Mikasa want her to come back for? Armin at least had a reason that made sense to Annie.

she spent the rest of the class copying all of the work she missed while she was gone, how could this much work be the load of a single week?!

x

Annie spent the duration ignoring everyone's questions about her absence, to think they'd understand that they should stop pestering her about it after being openly igorer but noo, they didn't. 

it wasn't until Annie had enough and slammed a fist on the table with a deadly glare that everyone seemed to understand she didn't want to talk about it.

instead, they started talking among themselves and planning for their next meetup. they'd occasionally ask if their plans suited everyone and Annie replied to those. and so, the weekend plan was set.

"are you gonna say what you want to say or keep staring at me like that?" Annie looked up at Mikasa.

the question startled the girl and Mikasa didn't know what to say but she kept her cool as she thought of a reply.

"I was just thinking" 

"about what?" Annie raised an eyebrow.

"nothing in particular" Mikasa shrugged.

"whatever"

the rest of lunch went uneventful, with Annie constantly catching Mikasa staring at her slightly and sending her a glare to make her look away.

unfortunately, the two shared a class afterwards. Gym.

Annie hated and loved this class at the same time, even though she was lazy she still enjoyed doing a good workout. too bad that every class up until now had been a crazy competition between the only two that actually take this class seriously. Annie and Mikasa.

everyone else would stop playing for two reasons, either to stare at the two compete for 45 minutes straight or because it was too dangerous to be in their play field anymore. 

after each class the two girls would be sweating heavily and have bruised limbs from hitting the balls with too much force.

today, Annie relised she forgot her gym clothes. so she stood in the locker room with no idea what to do, would she ask someone to lend her an extra shirt? should she just go in her hoodie? no her hoodie was too precious to be stained with sweat.

appearently someone noticed the lack of a small, cranky blonde in the class and went back to check.

Mikasa tapped Annie's shoulder to get her attention.

"what do you want?" Annie asked.

"why are you still here and not out with the others?" 

"i don't have any clothes to change into" Annie grumpled and crossed her arms.

"oh. i can lend you some if you want" Mikasa offered, moving to open her locker and rummaging through it to pull out a white piece of clothing.

"why do you have spares in your locker?" Annie raised an eyebrow and accepted the item.

"i like to be prepared" Mikasa shrugged.

"this is sleeveless." Annie frowned putting the shirt to her front, it was about two sizes too big for Annie and came down to mid thighs.

"is there a problem with that?"

"well, not really, i just dont like showing too much skin" Annie said and turned around to take off her hoodie.

Mikasa just hummed in response and didn't bother looking away while Annie changed. infact, she balantly stared at the exposed skin of her stomach and back.

feeling warmth creep up on her face, Mikasa exhaled and licked her lips to wet them before looking away and pretending she hadn't been staring the whole time.

"ok I'm done, let's go"

"the shirt looks like a dress on you. it's cute" Mikasa smiled with a chuckle and headed for the door. 

"shut up" Annie rolled her eyes with a hint of pink on her cheeks.

x

"listen up maggts! today we're playing dodgeball! the rules are simple, no penalty unless blood spills on the ground. Reiner Braun and Jean kristein, pick your teams"

after the very welly educating speech from coach Keith Shadis, everyone got in line to be picked.

Reiner went first. "Annie"

and automatically Jean countered that. "Mikasa"

"Bertholdt"

"Eren"

"Hitch"

"Sasha" 

Annie silently cursed at Reiner, Sasha was a valuable player, weird quirks aside, the girl was amazing at sports.

the game started with everyone running to the middle of the court to gather balls, Annie didn't bother and waited for Reiner to come back and give her one he snatched from a frightened skinny kid.

"Reiner, take out Eren, Bert you take out Armin. I'll handle Mikasa"

they didn't need to be told twice. both girls had been staring at each other since the whistle was blown and everyone had scooted away from their sight ranges.

Reiner threw first, hitting Eren in the face with a loud whack before he even relised what was happening. he laughed loudly at the curses Eren spat out as he stumbled back and was kicked out of the court.

Mikasa narrowed her eyes at him however, and Reiner knew she'd come back for revenge.

poor Armin was protecting his face with a ball so he didn't see the bullet of a ball come at his stomach minutes after Eren was out. Annie could hear his whimpering from across the room and she actually saw a few tears in his eye. she actually felt bad telling Bert to out him.

but she couldn't afford to get distracted now. Mikasa was still in the field and outing their team. she was making sure no one stayed for the final battle. between herself and Annie.

the rest of the class was doing the same, it seemed like everyone was just ignoring the two main threats and focusing on eliminating everyone else in preparation for the last two standing.

Reiner didn't even complain when he was eliminated, he probably was actually overjoyed that he'd be able to record everything before it was too late.

and so the moment came, no one was standing in the court other than Mikasa Ackerman and Annie Leonhardt. the two faced each other with stony expressions.

Mikasa stared very deeply into Annie's cold eyes, it seemed like the longer she looked into them the more something started to unblurr.

Annie played with ball in her hand, she knew this type of scene before. she had faced off like this a long time ago. this time however, there was no Keith Shadis to stop their fight. she could finally do this.

Annie waited for the perfect opportunity, she knew Mikasa was too. she prepared herself for deflecting any attack but taking her iconic stance with a ball in her left hand.

Mikasa didn't move, but she saw something. flashes on Annie in the same pose, diffrent clothes and expression staring at her dead in the eyes.

Annie glared at her with pure hate, she had deadly intentions in her eyes. but as soon as the flash came, it faded.

Annie saw Mikasa's eyes widen slightly, she didn't hesitate and shot the ball directly at her face.

barely able to dodge, Mikasa stepped away stealthily and shot out the ball in her own possession, Annie dodged easily.

they both hurriedly to pick up any near ball to have the upper hand. again, none of them wanted to throw and be at a disadvantage with no balls.

"hurry up! there's only 10 minutes left of class!" shadis yelled.

Annie huffed and started slowly walking forward with the ball ready, Mikasa did the same. with both picking up speed and throwing once they were sure there was no backing out now.

Mikasa had a solid hit at Annie's face due to her height, while Annie threw the ball at Mikasa's stomach so hard that it made her stumble and fall to her butt holding her midsection.

Annie laid on the ground across from her holding her nose, she wondered if Mikasa had something against her face. she seemed to like injuring it a lot.

"it's a tie! now you filthy kids go wash up and then head for your classes" shadis yelled before leaving.

"good match"

Annie removed her hand to see Mikasa above her with a hand held out to her and the other resting on her stomach. 

"yeah, you did well too" Annie took thr hand and pulled herself up.

x

no one really needed a shower after today's class so everyone just changed and left. 

Annie sat on a bench, fingers poking at her bruised nose. she could feel it starting to heal and briefly wondered if steam started coming out.

"are you gonna sit here all day? everyone already left" Mikasa said leaning on a row of lockers with her arms crossed.

"what if i do?" Annie raised an eyebrow.

"do what you want then" Mikasa just shrugged. 

"maybe i will" Annie said but stood up to start charging. this time, she didn't bother turning around to remove her clothing. instead she just pulled the shirt up her body as she was standing up.

Mikasa did not expect that.

she had an internal battle with herself wither she should look away in embarrassment or keep her cool and keep looking.

both options didn't sound too good for Mikasa, because if she looked away then she'd give Annie the satisfaction of making her flustered. and if she kep staring, she wasn't sure if she could keep her eyes away from Annie's chest and abs. damn they looked good. so did her arms.

"like what you see?" 

Mikasa's thoughs were cut off by a teasing Annie who looked at her with a smirk.

"maybe" she admitted.

"oh?" the smirk only got wider and Mikasa wanted to smack it off. maybe with her lips..

truth be told, Mikasa couldn't stop thinking about those two kisses at the party. Annie took her first and second kissed. she didn't know if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

"well you can look but you can't touch" 

Annie wasn't ashamed of her body, she had killer abs and a good muscular frame. the benefits of starting military training and learning to fight ever since she was seven years old.

"i want to touch" Mikasa mumbled to herself.

"what?"

"i want to touch" Mikasa repeated clearly.

"oh." Annie was not expecting this kind of response.

Mikasa ignored all the logical reasons as to why she shouldn't do what she was about to do and did it anyway.

she marched up to Annie and grabber her by the shoulders, pushed her against the wall and slammed their lips together.

Annie held her breath, she was too frozen to do anything. she was torn between pushing Mikasa away and spitting insults at her, or kissing back.

Mikasa seemed to notice this lack of response and pulled back lightly to whisper against the blonde's lips. "kiss me back" and Annie lost control.

she kissed back with just as much heat and passion.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've done some parallels to the original show and it's been fun.  
> Please tell me your thoughts, i like to read them :).
> 
> Again, if any of you would like to participate in AnnieWeek starting 16th-22th march, you should check this post out.
> 
> http://annieweek.tumblr.com


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Im so sorry that i haven't updated in a while, i really have no excuse other than being lazy.  
> I was trying to complete the prompts for #AnnieWeek but im still not done.  
> I decided to take a break from it and write this chapter instead.  
> Enjoy :)

the next few days Annie didn't see Mikasa at all. Annie hadn't paid much attention to that, figured that the girl was probably just busy and opted to leave her alone for the time being.

mikasa was a busy girl, Annie knew that she participates in diffrent clubs and has advanced classes. her scedule must be pretty full.

it was only when Mikasa had been walking in the hallway, spotted Annie and immediately turned around and walked the other way, that Annie suspected that Mikasa was avoiding her.

but Annie was not going to let herself be avoided and ignored any longer. she was going to look for Mikasa and force her to explain herself.

x

it took a while to find Mikasa, the girl was pretty good at being sneaky. Annie would get a glimpse of her in a crowd but she would dissappear in a blink of an eye.

it honestly irritated Annie to no end, she thought about ignoring Mikasa back a few times to get back at her before calming down and brushing off the idea.

Annie sat in her seat forming her next plan to ambush Mikasa right when the bell rang but was cut out of her thoughts when she saw something that made her scowl in anger.

some guy Annie didn't know was leaning on Mikasa's desk and flirting with her, or at least attempting to. Mikasa was having none of that and was balantly ignoring his presence at her desk and instead writing down some notes.

Annie didn't know what possessed her to step out of her seat and walk behind Mikasa's to glare at the guy. she gave him her harshest glare without saying anything.

he visibly flinched but didn't attempt to stop his advances. Annie was having none of that however. "leave" she hissed in a low tone.

Mikasa stopped her scribbling when she heard and looked up at the guy, waiting to see his reaction. 

"and if i don't?" he replied in a challenging tone. poor stupid guy, Annie didn't even hesitate to send her fist towards the guy's mouth and knocking him out.

Mikasa gasped and turned around to face Annie in shock. 

she didn't get a chance to say anything though, as the teacher came hurriedly to check on Annie's victim. 

"Ms Leonhardt this is not the kind of behaviour that will be tolerated in this class! go to the principles office this instant!"

Annie didn't argue, but instead she huffed and went to pick up her bag and left the classroom. she was aware of the many pairs of eyes following her movement, turning around at the door and locking her own with a dark grey pair, simply to say "we need to talk".

x

Mikasa bolted out of class the second the bell rang, she was jogging quickly in order to avoid the wild traffic of students that would come out any minute. she was stopped however, by none that Eren Jaeger coming at her in excitment.

"did you really see Annie punch some dude's lights out!" he basically had stars in his eyes.

"not now Eren, i gotta go" she rounded around him to leave but he grabbed her arm with a pout.

"come on! you can't really save a minute to tell me what happened?! im your brother, you should tell me!" 

Mikasa rolled her eyes. he never actually acknowledges that they are siblings unless he wants something.

"not now, Eren" she said and pulled her arm back.

"well why the hell not!" he complained loudly.

"just because" she gritted her teeth. she really couldn't waste time.

"because what?!" he crossed his arms and glared at her.

"because i need to go find Annie, now leave me alone, Eren" she ordered and turned around to leave.

"I'm coming with you" he announced.

"no you aren't" she rolled her eyes once again. 

"you can't stop me"

Mikasa simply sighed and continued walking, Annie would scare him off later if she wanted anyway.

they found Annie sitting at one of the chairs on outside the principal's office, arms crossed and a dark scowl on her face.

the guy she knocked out was probably inside talking to the principal and most likely adding too much untrue events to what happened. and Annie was not happy about it.

"Annie-" Mikasa started but was cut off by her companion who shoved past her to stand infront of Annie with a huge grin.

"Annie, i can't believe you punched him! that's so cool!"

Annie didn't reply and instead gave hime a snarl that clearly warned him to keep quiet and back off.

but Eren, as dense as he is, didn't understand and didn't seem too bothered by the blonde's expression. so he kept gushing about how he thought she was.

that was until Annie's paitence ran thin and kicked him harshly in the shin, making him crumble to the floor with a dramatic and pathetic wail.

Mikasa shook her head and stepped over him to get to the blonde. she took a seat next to her and looked at her warily, not wanting to accidentally get on the girl's nerves.

"wanna tell me what was that all about?" 

Annie grunted and looked away, avoiding Mikasa's eyes. her stony expression falling slightly. she wasn't about to tell Mikasa she did all of that because she was jealous.

"he just pissed me off" she mumbled after a few minutes. 

"who? Eren or that guy?" Mikasa asked.

"both"

"what the hell was that all about Annie?!" Eren's voice cut through to their ears and Annie immediately snapped her head in his directon to glare at hime again.

"Jaeger, leave. before i break your ankle this time" she threatened.

he snorted and shakily stood up. "whatever" he turned around grumpily and limped away.

"did you really have to do that?" Mikasa asked with a small smile.

"yes" 

"so what is your punishment?" 

"he gave me a warning and a strike and is currently calling my legal guardian" Annie shrugged.

"so your parents are coming?" Mikasa asked.

"i.. guess?"

Annie never really talked to Hanji and Levi about what she should be referring to them as when asked about guardians. they didn't really fit into the parents disruption and she didn't know what to call them.

the two stayed quiet for a while, neither knowing what to say. excited chatter broke the awkward tension though.

it seemed like the students loitering in the hallway were all staring at one thing that was making it's way through.

Annie didn't really care, but Mikasa was curious and sat at the edge of her seat in hope to get a glimpse. 

it only took 3 minutes to walk in her range of sight and Mikasa was slightly confused.

there was a blond man in a military suit walking towards the two girls. his head held high and it was seemingly attracting so much stares from the students. the girls in particular.

he spotted the two and stopped right infront of Annie, looking down at her with a frown.

Annie looked down and avoided his gaze.

"let's go in, shall we?" Erwin spoke, his voice seemed deeper than usual and it slightly unnerved Annie.

she just nodded and stood from her seat to follow him inside. casting one last glance at Mikasa who was looking at her in concern.

x

Annie and Erwin didn't stay inside with the principal for long, it was quite a short meeting. mostly went by with the principal station how Annie had been showing violent behaviour and a slacking attitude.

Erwin had few responses and Annie just tuned them both out by the first five minutes.

they were free to go after thirty minutes. Annie was about to ditch Erwin and go loiter around before her next class but her plans were not going to happen.

"Levi is picking you up later, the three of us will have a chat with you tonight" he said.

"can't you just take me with you instead?" she raised an eyebrow.

"no, i have to attend to a few things back at work"

"ok."

"and Annie, i don't want to be called in here for another meeting about your behaviour, you understand" he said sharply.

"why were you called in here instead of Hanji and Levi anyway? i thought you were too busy to be attending to things like these" Annie asked.

"i am, but i am the one who is mainly responsible for you. so it would make sense for me to come" 

"i see.." 

"Anyway, I'll be off now. I'll see you tonight" he said.

"yeah.. see you" Annie said awkwardly.

geez, speaking with Erwin alone was so weird.

x

deciding on skipping the next class, Annie sat outside behind the school building. she didn't really have anything to do, but as she leaned on the wall, she could feel a faint buzzing on her hip.

she furrowed her brows and zipped her bag open to look for the source. it was her phone. oh.

she forgot all about this thing. haven't used it since a few days after she got it. the battery percentage was at 25%. but apparently poeple were still attempting to contact her. 

she had plenty of unread messages that she just ignored and skipped over. mostly from Eren trying to start a conversation and ask her to hang out with him, Armin and Mikasa. or asking her to teach him how to fight.

she was willing to teach the old Eren some moves, but this one was just too annoying to be around.

there was also a few messages from Armin saying hi and asking how she is. they were from a week ago. at least he knew that he should stop if he didn't get a response.

Annie skipped through the messages of thr group just messaging her who they were. she should probably reply later. she knew she wouldn't though.

how did they even get her number in the first place? she kept slowly scrolling, there was nothing intresting.

"hey there, whatcha doin there?" 

Annie looked up to see Hitch. she gave her a blank stare then looked back down at the screen in her hand.

"oi don't ignore me!" 

Annie kept ignoring her.

"Annieee" Hitch whined and moved to plop beside her on the ground. "don't ignore meee"

"leave me alone, Hitch" Annie frowned.

"oo what you got there?!" Hitch exclaimed and swiped the phone out of Annie's hands.

"hey give that back!"

"wow this is soo boring, you don't even have any apps on this thing"

"shut up" Annie rolled her eyes.

"i can't let his happen, Annie. you need to be in contact with the world" Hitch said seriously.

"i don't want to" 

"you don't have a choice" Hitch stated loudly and Annie had to shush her so they wouldn't attract any attention.

"I'll install all social media apps for you, and you'll love them! just give me a second" Hitch smiled.

"seriously Hitch, i don't want to have that kind of thing" Annie sighed.

"ah! one is done, let's make you an instagram account" Hitch was being strangely giddy about this.

Annie just sat back and let her do what she wanted, she didn't want to bother. but a flash startled her. she looked at Hitch suspiously.

"what the hell did you do?!" Annie glared.

"took a picture of you for your profile, duh." Hitch said simply as she worked on editing the lighting on the picture.

"Now this is finished! look at your cool account!" Hitch showed Annie an empty profile, the name was a simple 'Annie.L" and the picture looked pretty good with how Hitch made it.

"um, cool?" 

"this is still pretty empty though, you'll need to start posting pictures of stuff and posting them to get followers, likes and comments" Hitch explained.

"o.. k" 

"here! I'll start it off for you!" 

Hitch threw her arm around Annie's shoulders and pulled her in close too fast, making Annie stumble and fall a little too close to Hitch's breasts for Annie's liking.

the picture was taken at that moment and Annie blushed lightly. she face palmed as Hitch was squealing at the picture happily.

"i posted it and tagged myself, now people who know me will know you too!"

"thanks, i guess." 

"no problem, now on to the next app!" 

Annie closed her eyes and groaned, she didn't know if she could handle much of Hitch rambling about stuff she didn't know any longer. 

they spent about an hour just going through the apps, Hitch saying too much and causing Annie to zone out while she talked. eventually, Annie officially had an account every popular social media, which she was pretty sure were going to die soon.

"Annie there's someone called Levi calling you" Hitch pointed out.

she answered and got a simple "im at the front of the school, don't make me wait"

"sorry Hitch, gotta go" Annie said and stood up.

"that's okay, text me tonight, alright?!"

"sure."

Annie walked away and headed for the car parked at the side of the road. she got in and raised an eyebrow at the face Levi was making.

"heard you got into a fight"

"yeah, kinda. so?"

"did you win?"

"yeah"

"good."

x

when they arrived at home, Annie went to her room to wait until Erwin came by. she decided to plug in the charger to her phone for the first time and laid down on the bed with it.

she saw the new apps that had been installed today all had notification bubbles, seeing them irritated Annie slightly for some reason. so she went in each one to make them go away.

she was a few seconds into instagram when one notification grabbed her attention. 

Mikasaackerman is now following you.

the name spiked her intrest. what was Mikasa doing in her own account? maybe Annie could get some ideas for when she decided to do something with her own. maybe she'd get to see cool pictures of Mikasa?

the girl had over 10K followers despite the account being private! Annie pressed the follow button and went to go pick out some clothes for a shower.

going back to the phone, her request had already been accepted. Annie's shower was temporarily forgotten and the girl sat down to look at the many beautiful pictures presented.

"wow" Annie muttered.

half an hour later, Annie reached the bottome of the account. she didn't put a like on any single picture because she was honestly too embarrassed to do so. but she did drop in a comment on the most recent post.

Annie sat still for a moment, her eyes just aimlessly looking around the room. they fell onto her desk, where her old military police uniform laid on the chair.

she missed it, missed her old life. even though this one was probably ten times better than before. but she didn't belong here. she didn't fit in.

Annie grabbed the jacket and put it on. it still fit the same, hugging her figure nicely against the hoodie she was wearing. she almost looked the same as before. she looked like the Annie she knew herself to be. Annie the 4th in her cadet corps. Annie the military police recruit.

Annie the warrior.

it was almost sad, she was never getting that life back again.

her phone buzzed in the background. and Annie picked it up. instead of checking the notification however, she took a picture of herself in her uniform.

it looked pretty decent, nowhere near the quality of the pictures Hitch or Mikasa took, but still decent.

she posted it in her account with the caption. 

"i just want the weak, who do get swept along with the flow, to be considered human too."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was also a filler, but i wanted to give Annie a short break before getting into the main parts again.  
> If you have any ideas , suggestions or questions feel free to comment them and I'll respond to you as soon as i could.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is from mikasa's point of view, or rather centred around her.  
> Enjoy :)

the next day, Mikasa woke up early in the morning to do her daily routine of taking a shower, picking the outfit for today and taking some time to apply makeup to herself. she didn't like caking her face like the other girls however, just some simple touches to enhance her natural beauty.

she sat at the kitchen table with her phone in hand and other holding a piece of toast for her to munch on while she waited for Eren to wake up so they could leave.

mornings were always chaotic in the Jeager household, mostly because Eren was the type who slept through 7 alarams and would make a fuss about getting up every morning. 

unlike Mikasa who wakes up at 5Am every morning to take her time while making herself presentable for the day.

she wouldn't admit it but she slightly envied Eren for having the ability to throw whatever t shirt and jeans he had laying around and look good in them with no effort. if she did that, she'd look like a disaster.

so while she waited for her lazy brother, Mikasa was scrolling through her phone and checking the notifications. she prided herself in having such a large amount of followers on social media with no real effort.

sure most of them were just following her because she was attractive, not because they knew her or were friends with her. 

Mikasa didn't post many unique photos or posts, they were just simple selfies with friends and family, things she found cool.

but people appearently found that intresting, because they liked it. Mikasa would get many likes and comments on each post, she'd get many message requests that she still can't get through.

but Mikasa wasn't really intrested in replying to these people, or communicating with them on a personal level.

she was intrested though, in one new follower by the name of Annie.L

it was obvious who that was. the profile picture confirmed it.

when she saw that picture appear on her feed last night, she got curious.

it was a picture of Annie and Hitch taking a selfie, Annie had an alarmed expression while she was practically shoved into Hitch's chest. And Hitch was smiling widely at the camera.

that moment, Mikasa didn't know why she had an unpleasant wave of emotions when she looked at that picture. she found herself unconsciously staring daggers at Hitch.

if that was a real life situation, Mikasa wouldn't hesitate too much to harshly push Hitch to the ground. and she felt ashamed to even have that thought.

she knew why she had those feelings, she wasn't a stranger to them. Mikasa was a possessive person and she didn't like people getting close to those who were close to her.

sure Annie wasn't close to Mikasa in any way but Miksas knew she wanted her to be.

it was obvious really, the feelings of attraction she felt for the girl. it's not like the two of them could deny it. they made out more than a couple of times already so it was safe to assume physical attraction was mutual.

but Mikasa didn't want it to be only physical. she wanted more than that.

right now Mikasa sat still in her seat, her phone was off and on the table. she was deep in her thoughts as she tried to put together what she was feeling. and it hit her like a wall.

she had a crush on Annie.

she couldn't rely deny it, everyone who knew Mikasa long enough would notice the changes in her behaviour when Annie was around.

she wasn't as cold or emotionless, she actually smiled sometimes. she joked around and most importantly, she forgets all about Eren when Annie is near.

Mikasa released a groan, what would she do now? she didn't know if Annie had feelings for her like she did to Annie. and simply asking was not an option like it normally would be for Mikasa.

avoiding the girl had been the best option at the time she suspected it but it proved to do the exact opposite of what she wanted.

so what should she do now?!  
she would see the girl first thing in the morning and throughout the whole day!

just thinking about it made Mikasa blush lighlty and feel butterflies in her stomach.

"yo Miksasa! what are you doing there just spacing out?! c'mon we need to go!"

her thoughts were interrupted by Eren at the door and her blush only worsened. she didn't reply and simply stood up, picked up her bag and followed the boy out with her head looking down.

she didn't want him to notice how red she is and make a ridiculous comment about it, she wasn't in the mood. she felt too nervous as she walked.

luckily for her, she was great at masking her emotions. so it didn't show on her expression how nervous she felt. on the outside, Mikasa looked like she did every day, the same flat expression and cold eyes. 

the only thing that gave her away was her bright pink cheeks, which were half covered by her trademark scarf. 

it was all well hid and masked. no one would notice.

x

Armin noticed.

nothing got past that cheeky little bastard, Mikasa sat in the backseat of their blonde friend's car while Eren claimed the front. 

the two boys were talking about a new video game that came out a while ago, Mikasa was not intrested so she just leaned back and tried to ignore the way those blue eyes glanced at her from the back view mirror. 

he was not getting anything out of her. no way.

"hey is that Annie!!" 

Mikasa blinked and looked at Eren who had his face pressed to the window so he can get a better look.

it was indeed Annie walking to school lazily with her hands in her hoodie pocket. she didn't seem to notice them so she kept walking ahead.

"let's see if she wants a ride to school" Eren suggested.

"sure" Armin replied and pulled up just ahead of the girl so she'd see them and not walk away.

"hey Annie! want a ride?!" Eren rolled his window down and was leaning out of it and waved his arm to get Annie's attention.

Annie ignored him and walked like she didn't see anything.

Mikasa snorted at the expression Eren was making.

but Eren snapped out of it and angrily reached for Annie before she could completely walk away. "Hey Annie! don't ignore me!"

Annie did not like that.

she grabbed his arm in reflex and pulled on it making Eren get tugged forward and fall forward face first onto the ground.

"don't touch me" she growled.

"ow what the hell!" Eren complained. "why do you have to be such a bitch, Annie?!"

she simply glared.

"and here we were trying to be nice and ask if you wanted a ride but looks like we aren't offering anymore" he continued.

"no Eren it's okay, Annie can still come with us" Armin called from his place at the wheel.

"no she can't!" Eren replied stubbornly.

"it isn't your car, you know. if Armin said she could, then she could" Mikasa spoke up.

"shut up, Mikasa" 

"who the hell do you think you are to talk to her that way?" Annie spoke up to break the glare match between the two siblings.

"what?! it's none of your business" 

Annie suddenly swept a leg under Eren's, making him trip and fall to the ground once more.

"you should learn some manners before you open that good for nothing mouth of yours" Annie said lowly before turning to the two in the car. "thanks for the offer but school isn't far, I'll walk the rest of the way"

"o-oh okay then" Armin nodded. "you're always welcome to get a ride if you want though, Annie" 

"thanks Armin" Annie smiled lightly before waving bye to the two and leaving. not before she stpped over Eren's stomach and continuing her way.

Mikasa stared at the figure as it got further and smaller, she frowned. why did Annie only smile at Armin that way? why hadn't she done the same to Mikasa?

"Mikasa, do you like Annie?" Armin suddenly spoke quietly.

"w-what?!" 

"you like her" it was a confirmation this time. he smiled.

"Armin you better not-" she started.

"i won't do anything" he cut off with a grin. "i just wanna help you out if you want"

he had a big grin that made Mikasa very uncomfortable. 

"don't you dare do anything" she said firmly befire opening her door to call out for Eren. but accidentally slamming the door to his head. she held back a laugh at the screech and poked her head out.

"get up or we're leaving without you"

"screw y'all" he moaned pathetically.

x

at school, Mikasa didn't see Annie at all. they had passed her on the way so she assumed that she was still walking when they reached the school.

but it was lunch now an still no Annie around. Mikasa had a class with her but the girl did not attend either. Mikasa was getting slightly worried.

she passed by Mina in the hallway and stopped to talk.

"hey Mina, did you see Annie today?" 

"oh hi Mikasa, no Annie still didn't come to school yet. i tried texting her but she didn't reply" Mina frowned.

"oh." 

"yeah, I'm kinda worried, she said she'd meet me first thing in the morning" Mina continued.

"I'm sure she'll turn up soon" 

"i hope" 

and with that Mikasa turned around and walked away. each time she had an encounter with Mina, she seemed to dislike her more. Mikasa frowned.

why did Annie like her so much?

there was nothing special about her. she was average looking and her attitude was basic. why was Annie like to spend so much time with her?

there was also Hitch, Annie seemed to like her too. Mikasa admits to herself that she didn't like that. 

what did those two have that Mikasa didn't? was she too tall? too muscular? Mina and Hitch were pretty slim and cruvy, Mikasa always felt selfconcious about her body despite it being very attractive.

was Mikasa too cold? too quiet for someone like Annie?

that had to be it. two quiet people wouldn't have anything to do together, what would they even do if they had a date together? sit together and read?

at second thought, that didn't sound too bad. she and Annie could cuddle infront of a warm fireplace and read together in comfortable silence. it would be perfect.

Mikasa paused. recalled her previous thoughts and blushed very darkly in the hallway. she ducked her head and hurried to the door, hoping to have some peace and quiet while she tried to tone down her blush.

x

Mikasa leaned on the walls near the entrance and sighed. damn Annie was making her blush badly without even being around.

speak of the devil, and she shall appear.

Annie came staggering through the gate, her hoodie was missing a whole sleeve and there was blood on her hand, shoes and the bottom of her jeans.

Mikasa's eyes widened and she gasped. that was enough to grab Annie's attention to her. Annie stiffened and purposely changed her route to take another.

"Annie wait!" 

she saw her halt and Mikasa didn't waste any time to run up to her. Annie was looking at the ground with a very dark glare, obviously not intended for Mikasa as Annie was clenching her jaw and avoiding eye contact.

"what happened to you?!" Mikasa grabbed Annie's chin and held it in her hand, her eyebrows furrowing in concern.

"i don't want to talk about it" Annie looked off to the side.

"are you hurt?" 

"not really" Annie answered, hiding her sleeved arm behind her back. there was no arm in that sleeve and Annie didn't want Mikasa to notice the steam.

"we have to get you to the nurse!" 

"no I'm fine, i don't need to go" 

"but Annie! look at you!" Mikasa protested.

"look Mikasa, im not going to the nurse. I'm just going to go look for Mina to give her something i borrowed and then im going home for the day" Annie said pulling back.

Mikasa frowned deeply but said nothing.

"I'll see you tomorrow, Mikasa" 

Mikasa stood watching Annie walk away, her eyebrows rose when she saw that Annie was.. wearing her hoodie backwards. the pocket was in the back.

just what happened when they drove past her? damn, they should've made her get a ride with them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Your thoughts? They'd be greatly appreciated :)


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Im so sorry for the long wait, i was very busy with exams. But im almost done with them so i had time to write a chapter.   
> I hope you like it :)

when Annie left the house, she was already in a bad mood. she didn't know why, but she had a really bad feeling as she walked.

she felt like she was being watched. 

it made her slightly nervous not knowing who and why she was being followed. she didn't know their capabilities or numbers. 

she probably should've taken up on the offer of getting a ride from Armin, and she was going to. but Eren pissed her off so she didn't want to do it anymore.

she saw the car speed along and stared at it until it turned a corner. Annie sighed. she should hurry up and go to school.

Annie walked with her hands in her hoodie pocket and her face down, she gazed at her shoes as she dragged them infront of her.

crossing the road and rounding the corner of some stores, Annie didn't pay much attention to the alleys she passed. they were all dark and dirty and probably didn't have anything to be intresting enough to look at as she walks.

it was at the gap of two buildings that Annie glimpsed a few people standing at, they wore cloaks and their faces were covered. Annie tensed but kept walking. 

they were whispering and glancing at her while she shuffled faster in a hurry to get to the side of the building already. but it seemed like they had made up their minds and casually started walking behind her as if they weren't looking suspicious enough.

she had barely passed the alley when she was pulled back roughly by the shoulder and into the shadows.

Annie glared coldly at the strangere, she could take them all down in a matter of seconds but she cursed that Erwin told her to keep a low profile and not attract attention.

he could make an exception this time, it wasn't her fault anyway.

"what the hell do you want?!" Annie hardened her glare.

"we want to talk to you" 

"well i don't, so get lost before i kick your ass" she spat.

"I'm afraid you don't have a choice" he shook his head.

one of them pulled out a taser gun and shot her from behind before she could have a chance to dodge. Annie yelled out, dropped her bag and fell to her knees dazed, she could see them surrounding her as her eyes closed.

x

Annie woke up with hazy unfocused eyes, she blinked a couple of times to adjust to the dark room she was inside. she tried looking around for something to help her analyse the situation but it was too dark and from what she could see, the room was empty other than the chair she was currently strapped to.

Annie pulled on the roped and huffed. it was useless.

thankfully, she didn't have to wait long to know what's going on. the door opened a few moments later and a group of three entered.

they were all wearing the same cloaks from before, two stood behind her while the third faced her and pulled off his hood.

he had a dull face with sunken eyes, a deep frown with a haircut that was more stupid than Jean's. he wore some sort of necklace underneath his cloak, Anni noticed that it peaked over it and was faintly able to remember the design. she knew these types of people from long ago. 

the wall worshippers. 

she had heard about these people from Reiner and Bertholdt, said they knew secrets they themselves didn't know, apparently they wanted it to be kept that way.

so why would they come after Annie? now of all times?

"hello Annie" the man infront of her said.

Annie didn't reply.

"I'm sure you're wondering why we brought you here?"

'oh no, I'm fine with just sitting here and chilling with you guys' Annie thought and rolled her eyes sarcastically.

"we have something we want from you Annie" he continued. and Annie was suddenly intrested.

what would they want? she didn't have anything to offer.

"we want.. your power"

"what are you talking about, old man?!" Annie said.

"your powers, we know that you are a titan and we need you to lend your power to us"

"i don't know what kind of bullshit you think I'll do for you but my answer is no" she said rudely.

"I'm afraid you don't have much of a choice here" 

"actually, yes, yes i do have a choice" she replied. "and that's no, im not doing anything for you"

"you haven't even heard our request, Annie"

"i don't need to"

"you might change your mind though-"

"i won't" she interrupted.

"as you can see, this hasn't been a great time for the walls, they are old and filthy and are not taken care of like they had used to." he ignored her and continued.

"no one had listented to our calls and the calls of our ancestors, we hoped to talk some sense into the poeple of today, to regain the walls' noble status"

"the walls are a cage and they should've been taken down a long time ago" Annie injected.

"no it should have not been abandoned like that!" he suddenly shouted. suprising Annie and the two figures behind her.

"it should be honoured and praised, it is what kept us alive for so long! it protects us!"

Annie just shrugged at him after his small rant, it seemed like a good idea to provoke him. he looses his cool way too easily.

all she had to do was keep talking shit about the walls and he would do exactly as she plans.

"I'm pretty sure there isn't anything dangerous out there anymore, they are useless now. what would they protect you from anyway? bears?" she snorted.

"do not talk about the sacred walls like that! do not disrespect them!" he yelled.

Annie raised her eyebrows. "or what?" she challenged.

the man fumed for a minute before backhand slapping Annie. she smirked. 

"what a real tough guy you are, hitting a helpless and tied up girl" Annie mocked.

his action seemed to move his companions into reality because they had moved from their place to stand infront of him, blocking his path to Annie.

"what are you doing?! now she'll never be willing to do what we need her to!" the one on the left whisper shouted. 

"yeah, and she'll definitely tell on us if we let her go now" the other one added.

"uh excuse you, I was going to tell on you the moment you pulled me into that alley" Annie added in to their conversation.

that seemed to make the two slightly nervous.

"good job" one of them said accusingly to the man who hit her.

"i do not care! there is a prophecy and she will do as we say!" his tone started to get more forceful.

a prophecy? what prophecy?

Annie barely had time to register what he said before he had shoved his way between the two caped men and grabbed Annie's shirt.

"you will do as we say" he said lowly looking into her eyes.

she glared at him with the most vicious glare she could muster before spitting in his face, making him let go of her to wipe it off. she didn't waste the chance and kicked him right in the groin making him kneel over. then kicked him again in the face to shove him away.

the others seeing the situation get violent, immediately went looking for an object to knock Annie out before it got too dire.

luckily for Annie, none of them thought the situation would escalate to this so quickly so no one had brought a weapon to use on Annie. that gave her some time shuffle her hands around behind her back and position her ring so her blade would be ready to be used.

but Annie didn't want to transform here, it was too risky. she didn't know if this place was away from civilians or not, if it would hold it's structure or be destroyed under the body of the female titan. and most importantly, she didn't want to kill these people even if they wanted to use her for something sinister.

she drew her blade but she hesitated, can't there be another way?

unfortunately, that moment of hesitation cost Annie her chance of escape. the three had already called in a few extra people to help keep the situation under control.

Annie didn't like this outcome. it seemed like it would have to go in the direction where she didn't want to go.

she closed her eyes and sighed. there was multiple guns and tasers pointing her eay when she opened them, waiting for her to make a move.

Annie's face slowly started changing from her normal angry resting bitch face to a full angry and harsh glare. she looked into the man's eyes, who was being kept back by the others.

she swiped her thumb across the blade making a small cut. lightning struck her and she listened to the wails of the people outside as her titan appeared out of thin air and crushed them.

the building was thankfully in somewhat of a seluded area. it fell apart the moment her titan's torso started to appear. so the only destruction was mainly for this building only. and it was also a good thing that no other civilians were nearby, it would just make the situation worst.

Annie didn't shift completely, just enough for her to be safe from any major injuries as the building broke. due to that, the rubble fell and stabbed through her titan from, right into her own body.

a huge sharp wooden pole fell onto her shoulder, nearly slicing it off and Annie held back a scream. she couldn't shake push it off. the only way for her to untangle herself from it was for her to lose her arm.

this wasnt the first time Annie lost a limb, she bit her lip and couldn't stop the tears pouring down her face as she pulled her body from her arm.

falling down the middle of the rubble with a thud, she breathed heavily and sniffled. there was so, so many dead bodies around her, and they all lost their lives because of her. 

she laid there for a while before picking herself up and stumbling away from the place, she cringed with every step she took, she wasn't sure if it was from the pain or the guilt over having to step over dead bodies but she knew she had to get away fast.

x

Annie managed to slink away into the city once more before the police had made an appearance at the scene, she had to call Levi and let him know but she didn't have her backpack with her.

and she couldn't call from any other phone either because she didn't have money to spend on a payphone, and she didn't have any of her guardians' number memorised.

"well shit" she mumbled. she didn't know what to do right now.

she walked around aimlessly, thinking of something to do. she knew she was getting odd looks from strangers even though she stuck close to walls and did her best to blend in.

it was kind of hard to do when you were a bloodied, steaming kid with a backwards hoodie. she had to wear her hoodie backwards and go through walking the street looking like an idiot so her missing arm wouldn't be noticed.

wait! she had a note in her locker at school with emergency contacts for Levi, Hanji and Erwin! she could go there and call them to pick her up.

but did she really want to go to school looking like this? rumours would spread like a wildfire and Annie did not want to be the center of attention again, it was bad enough being the new kid once, she didn't want to be the creepy bloody kid this time.

with a heavy sigh, Annie made her way to x school. she thought carefully about what those guys had said, they wanted her to do something, and there was.. a prophecy?

what did that even mean?

she kept her eyes locked into the huge walls surrounding the area, what was so important about them?

before she knew it, she was already limping across the gate of the school and into the courtyard. she was lucky that it seemed to be time for classes, no one would be in the hallways right now. just go in and go out, easy.

a loud gasp pulled her out of her thoughts, she looked up to see Mikasa looking at her with a disbelieving face. 

Annie stiffened and turned around to go for another entrance.

"Annie wait!" 

Annie stopped, she clenched her jaw and looked down to avoid Mikasa's eyes. 

"what happened to you?" Mikasa gently grabbed her jaw but Annie forced her face away.

"i don't want to talk about it" she replied.

"are you hurt?" Mikasa asked.

"not really" Annie answered, she didn't know if that was an actual question or not, she was obviously hurt.

"we have to get you to the nurse!" 

"no I'm fine, i don't need to go" 

"but Annie! look at you!" Mikasa protested.

"look Mikasa, im not going to the nurse. I'm just going to go look for Mina to give her something i borrowed and then im going home for the day" Annie said pulling back.

Mikasa frowned deeply but said nothing.

"I'll see you tomorrow, Mikasa" 

Annie walked away and headed inside, she was feeling kind of bad to use Mina as an excuse like this but she couldn't think of anything else at the time.

she just hoped Mikasa wouldn't speak to Mina about this and demand answers. she didn't want to put Mina in that situation.

x

Annie had grabbed that note and was able to call Hanji from the counselor's office when it was empty, now she just sat against the wall of the school and waited.

she was really tired, she had her eyes closed and was about to drift off when a loud honk woke her up. she jumped from her place and hurried into the car.

"damn, what happened!" Hanji gasped.

"i honestly don't know" Annie answered truthfully. "I'll tell you at home when everyone's there" 

"are you okay? are you hurt? do we need we need to stop by the hospital on the way?" Hanji rambled.

"no no, I'll be fine in a couple of hours" she grabbed the empty sleeve in her hoodie. this would be hard to explain to a doctor anyway.

"are you sure?" 

"yes. could you just pass by this alley at the next turn? i dropped my backbag there and i need it back" 

"sure"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed it, I'll be going back to updating once every one week or so.


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Late but i finished it. Thanks for the kind comments and kudos, i really appreciate them.  
> Here's the new chapter.  
> Enjoy :)

explaining something that you have no idea how it happened was hard and frustrating. especially if you were trying to explain it to someone who was constantly interrupting to ask stupid questions.

Annie groaned loudly before banging her head on the table she was sitting at. the five adults sitting around her were still clueless and confused.

"just stop whining and tell us what happened, you brat" Levi was pissed her like everyone else, but he wasn't trying to hide it like them.

"i TOLD YOU i don't knOw HoW it happened! i was walking in the usual route to school then i was dragged into this alley and tased befire going unconscious" Annie waved her arms in frustration, her new grown arm now back in it's original place.

she huffed and sat back in her chair with her arms crossed. "after i woke up i was surrounded by these weird and creepy guys who kept talking nonsense. they wanted my help but i obviously refused" 

"and then what?" Erwin spoke.

"and then their leader got mad and hit me, i didn't do anything yet but i waited till a good moment before using my ring to transform" Annie lowered her voice to a whisper as she reached the end. she was still feeling really guilty for killing those people.

"your ring?" Hanji whispered.

Annie froze, she never told them about the ring.

"y-yeah, my ring" 

"show it to me" Hanji demanded.

Annie handed it over with a reluctant sigh.

"why have you never told us about this ring before, Annie?" Erwin asked. fuck she was in trouble.

"i uh, i honestly forgot about it for a while. and you guys took but gave it back to me before so i assumed you knew" she shrugged and replied honestly.

"well I'm sorry Annie but we can't let you have it anymore" Erwin spoke and Annie frowned sadly. it was her last memory from her father.

"you already did so many of the things we told you not to do, you transformed against our will, you killed people, and most importantly, you hid a weapon from us" the bald man sitting next to Erwin said. 

Annie looked down, it's not like she wanted to do any of that. they're talking about it as if she enjoyed doing it.

"am i in trouble?" she whispered with a defeated sigh and slouched forward.

"what do you think?" Levi sarcastically replies.

Annie scowled at him from the corner of her eye and mockingly mouthed the words he had said. now wasn't the time for his smartass-ness. she was honestly think about how freaked out Mikasa was after seeing her like in school like that.

her phone didn't stop buzzing in her bag since she left the girl alone. she could still hear it faintly in the corner of the room where her bag was tossed.

"we gave you a chance, Annie. and you misused it" Pixis said dissappointed. 

"I'm sorry" was all she could say.

"I'm afraid we have to take some necessary actions" he said.

"now now pixis, i don't think we should act before thinking this through" Zeke said from his seat at the end of the table. "the kid obviously didn't do it because she simply felt like doing it. we should cut her some slack"

Annie's ears perked in hope but she remained silent.

"Zeke if you aren't capable of comprehending the situation i suggest you shut up" Erwin said sharply.

"oh i fully understand the situation, i just don't think it's a good idea to punish Annie too harshly for it" 

"people have died, Zeke! and it was not a few or even a quiet death either!" Erwin yelled slamming his fist on the table. "everyone in town had heard the transformation, many civilians reached the site before we did and have already broadcasted the news and there is nothing that we can do now to silence the public" 

"you were lucky to not have been spotted leaving the area, Annie" Hanii said gently to ease the tension and the obvious discomfort in the girl's body language. "many saw you walking in the street though, we're lucky they couldn't see your face"

Annie clenched her jaw and stayed silent.

Erwin sighed and ran a hand down his face in attempt to calm down. he didn't want to have to punish Annie but her actions has to have consequences.

"so, what happens to her now?" Levi asked.

"hmm" pixis stroked his beard in thought and purposely took his sweet time to think just to irritate the adults around him. he also wanted to mess with Annie.

"i guess we could just ground her" he finally shrugged. 

all pair of eyes snapped to him in shock. what the hell was this old geezer saying?! letting Anniw off the hook without any serious punishment.

"but sir-" Hanji gasped.

"no no, i don't want to hear anything" that immediately shut Hanji up, he turned to Annie.

"listen Annie, what you did is a serious crime that must be punished by law." Annie flinched. "but you are also a victim in the situation we won't need drastic measures, since you are a minor and can't really go to jail and since for some reason i actually like you, i won't be giving you a too harsh punishment. so you'll just be on house arrest for a the rest of the week." 

Annie gaped at him. so did everyone else.

"i.. thank you, sir"

"but hear me out very carefully, Annie. i do not want to hear that you've used your powers without permission again. I'm letting it slide since you did it out of self defence. but if you do it again i will have no choice but to make you take responsibility"

"yes, sir" she gulped. he was not joking around.

"now run along, child. these two will take you home while me and the gentlemen will try to fix your mess" he joked and waved her off to Hanji and Levi.

-

the car ride back home was filled mostly with Hanji speaking too fast and too loud for Annie's liking. she had tuned her out after 5 minutes and laid her head on the window to pretend she was asleep in hopes that Hanji would notice and quiet down.

no such thing happened and shortly after she had turned to complain to Levi about Annie. which he had replied to with a harsh "shut the fuck up"

he appearently didn't want to listen to Hanji either.

the woman just kept mumbling grumpily to herself the rest of the way, that was until Annie's door slammed open and the forces of gravity sent Annie to the pavement.

she cursed and looked up angrily at the set of feet infront of her. why was Levi such an asshole?

"the fuck was that for?" she hissed.

"get up, just because pixis let you off the hook doesn't mean we will" he said with crossed arms.

she huffed, pulling herself up to her feet and dusting herself off before following the two inside.

"and what the hell do you want me to do?" 

"you are going to clean this entire house tonight, you won't be going to bed until you're done" he growled.

"oh come on!" she whined. "it's already clean anyway"

"you'll clean it again, and you'll be giving extra to Hanji's bathroom" he smirked evilly.

Annie shuddered. Hanji laughed from behind her.

-

Annie laid on her bed soaking of sweat that night, breathing heavily and unable to move any muscle in her body. the room was also full of steam so it made it even worse to be there.

that asshole Levi really did make her clean the entire house and didn't allow her to stop unless it was for bathroom breaks or meals.

cleaning the entire house wasn't the reason she was so tired. in fact, it was the easy part as Levi was a clean freak and had kept it clean for the most part.

the real nightmare was cleaning anything that belonged to Hanji. Annie had almost lost her lunch twice cleaning her bathroom.

Annie waited for pounding in her muscles to numb before she pulled herself out of bed to take a shower and check on her phone. which had such a big amount of texts that Annie was suprised that one person could send in one day.

she read every single one before typing out a reply.

A》hey.

it didn't take more than 2 minutes before one was sent back.

M》where have you been?? I've been trying to talk to you all say! why aren't you replying?! are you hurt??!

Annie felt bad at making Mikasa worry so much, but at the same time she waa slightly amused.

A》I'm fine, i need to talk to you though. meet me at the park?

M》ok, I'll be there in 10.

Annie threw her phone on the bed and went to get ready, she grabbed some shoes and a new hoodie since her old one could no longer be used.

Annie locked the door to her room and snuck out the window. she knew that Levi or Hanji wouldn't come to her room since she made a scene as she went up, but she had to be extra sure.

don't to get in even more trouble with those two. or Pixis and Erwin either.

the park was dark and quiet, just what Annie was hoping for.

Mikasa was already there when Annie got there, she could see her sitting on a bench with her arms crossed and leg shaking.

she looked upset. Annie took a deep breath before aproaching the girl.

"hey." 

Mikasa spun around to look at Annie, she scanned her body for any injuries before launching herself at the girl and squeezing her in a tight hug.

"u-uh M-Mikasa, i.. i can't b-breath" Annie grunted, the only response she got was Mikasa's arms tightening around her neck and her face turned red. 

Annie wasn't sure if that was because of the lack of air or because she was blushing because her face was pressed against Mikasa's chest. sometimes being short wasn't so bad.

unfortunately for Annie, her bliss didn't last long because the taller girl suddenly pulled back and slapped Annie across the face. 

"what were you thinking, Annie?! what happened to you and why didn't you reply to me at all when i was calling and texting?!" Mikasa yelled.

Annie just stared at Mikasa with wide eyes, she placed a hand against her red cheek. she wasn't sure which shocked her more, the fact that Mikasa just slapped her out of nowhere or that Mikasa was holding back tears as she glared at Annie.

"i.. Mikasa, I'm sorry. but i can't tell you what happened" Annie frowned.

"why the hell not?" Mikasa demanded.

"because.. because i just can't, I'm not allowed to" she said softly.

Mikasa frowned and reached up to Annie's face once again, ignoring the flinch from the shorter girl as she grabbed her face.

"who did this to you? is someone hurting you? are they forcing you to keep quiet?" Mikasa asked in a soft tone. she didn't try to hide the obvious concern for Annie.

"i can't tell you who, but.. Someone isn't really.. hurting me. it was just an accident" Annie assured. "belive me, Mikasa. I'm fine"

"I'm worried about you" Mikasa mumbled. "and I'm scared that you'll be getting more hurt again" 

"don't be, I'll be alright. i promise" Annie smiled softly.

Mikasa wrapped her arms around Annie's neck again, not intending to choke her this time. she rested her head on Annie's shoulder.

they stood there in the middle of the park, with Annie holding Mikasa until she felt better. feeling the fabric of her hoodie getting wet where Mikasa's face was. Annie frowned sadly.

"Mikasa.. are you crying?" 

".. no" she whimpered and attempted to wipe her face with Annie's hoodie.

"i really am sorry, Mikasa. I'll make it up to you" Annie said running a hand through Mikasa's hair.

Mikasa huffed and turned her face to look at blond. "how?" she pouted.

"i don't know yet but I'll think of something" Annie shrugged with a smile.

"it better be good" Mikasa pulled back and lightly punched Annie in the shoulder.

"have faith in me, will you?" Annie teased rubbing her shoulder.

"we'll see. impress me and you might be getting more than just a hug" Mikasa laughed.

"oh i already did" 

Mikasa blushed at the smug face. "shut up" she muttered.

"make me" 

"jerk" 

"coward" 

"i am not a coward!" 

"then why aren't you making me shut up?" Annie raised an eyebrow smugly.

Mikasa exhaled through her nose before grabbing Annie's face and pulling it to her own.

the kiss was brief and sweet. it seemed everytime the two kissed, they ran on diffrent emotions. 

"is that good enough to shut you up?" Mikasa husked looking into Annie's eyes.

"y-yeah-" 

Mikasa didn't give her time to finish her sentence before she pulled her back into a kiss.

"it's getting late" Annie pulled hack and panted.

"but i wanna kiss some more" Mikasa said.

"maybe later, come on I'll walk you home"

"okay fine" Mikasa rolled her eyes, grabbed Annie's hand and started walking to lead the way.

"hey don't be like that, you'll have plenty of times to kiss me some more" Annie smirked.

"i know" 

Anie laughed and walked with Mikasa back to her house, she stood awkwardly on the porch to say bye but Mikasa did not intend to let her leave without a kiss goodbye.

so Annie walked home alone with her thoughts swimming around her head, she occasionally touched her lips and blushed.

sneaking back in the house was a success and Annie threw herself on the bed feeling much better than the last time she laid on it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Felt like writing some fluffy Mikannie this time.  
> Your thoughts? Leave a comment pls :)


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Im not dead i swear!  
> Im so sorry for not posting, i had exams and then i completely forgot about this ;-;  
> thankfully some of you guys kept commenting and giving kudos so when i saw it i tried to start writing again

Annie was grounded that week, it didn't really matter to her, she went to school and went back home everyday anyway. she also didn't use any technology that could be taken from her like any normal kid.

but she hated how her punishment didn't end after that dreadful day of cleaning Hanji's disgusting mess. no, Levi made sure Annie knew just how much he was pissed at her.

after cleaning the entire house for two days straight, Levi made her clean the garden and the shed, clean both cars which he purposely dirtied just for her. and made her go run errands like shopping at 4am, said that the best deals are available early and that they need to grab them before everyone else. what a load of bullshit.

Annie was currently sitting crosslegged outside in the yard, not wearing a hoodie for once. she wore a sleeveless undershirt which was sticking to her body in the heat, and some basketball shorts with flipflops.

she had diffrent car parts scattered around her, which were all dirty of course. this was supposed to be the last part of her punishment and Levi wanted to make her remember it.

the parts were all oily and greasy, some were even clogged and Annie had to clean then with only a rag and water. which proved to be impossible no matter how hard Annie scrubbed.

the short asshole was sitting in the shade behind her and supervising. he was enjoying this. 

she huffed at dropped the last piece of metal to the ground along with the rag. she was finally done. Annie plopped down to her back and panted, her arms were so sore and her chest felt heavy from the heat. 

"hey no one said you could take a break!" Levi called from the porch.

"f-fuck.. you, Levi!" Annie huffed.

"yeah yeah, get back to work" he smirked.

"I'm done" she growled and crossed her arms, glaring at him.

"let's see then" he said and left his seat to aproach her.

picking up each piece and scanning over it carefully. they were not completely clean of course, he was about to throw it at her head and order to start cleaning again, but stopped when he looked at her.

Annie's arms were red, veins bulged at her biceps and her fingers kept twitching. the rag she used was tattered and is no longer good to use. Annie's chest rose and fell in a frantic pace and she was sweating so much that her clothes were entirely soaked.

Levi exhaled and nudged her with his foot. "fine you can go, just remember that if you screw up again you'll get much more worse than this" 

"oh thank god" she whispered throwing her arm over her eyes.

"gather this junk then go take a shower, you stink"

"i think I'll stay here for a minute" she muttered and closed her eyes.

"whatever"

x

"don't you think you went too far?" Hanji asked when Levi went back inside.

she's been looking at Annie from her room's window all day and she felt bad for the girl.

"nah, she's fine" he shrugged.

"but look at her! do you think she passed out?" she cast one more worried glance at the girl.

"her healing abilities will kick in a few minutes"

"Levi-" "Hanji stop! just gather your things and let's leave, we need to go inspect what she's done to those people"

Hanji frowned and did as told, picking up the reports they've recived from Erwin.

they left out the front door and Hanji's eyes hadn't left Annie's sleeping body till they rounded the corner. hopefully she'll wake up before something bad happens to her outside.

x

Hanji and Levi had been at the ruins of the building Annie had destroyed all day, looking for anything that would give them any leads to what had these people wanted from Annie. how did they know about the titans, and what did they want with the powers specifically.

not everyone who was there during the transformation had died, at least not from Annie's shifting. most of them were crushed under the rubble rather than crushed under a titan's body.

they had the few remaining living men taken to the station and interrogated, but these people were too stubborn for their own good. no one wanted to cooperatein favor to keeping their secrets safe.

so now, Hanji and Levi had the man who Annie had told them about strapped to a chair in a much darker room than the one Annie was held in. they loved playing bad cop-bad cop, it was much more fun than having one of them be a good cop.

"let us recap here, Nick. you told that you needed Annie but will still not tell us why" 

"yes"

Pastor Nick had to be given some credit for his strong will. but Levi was losing paitence as Hanji attempted to lighten the mood with some unnecessary remarks. 

"I'm giving you one last chance to speak before i bust your balls with this wrench, Nick" Levi threatened.

the pastor remained silent with a determined expression.

"have it your way then" Levi picked up his chosen tool and walked slowly towards the chair where Nick is seated. "last chance?" he stopped the tool right between the man's legs.

sweat started to appear on the pastor's forhead. "w-wait!"

"ooh??" Hanji asked.

"I'll answer your questions, but not the ones regarding the walls or our group's activity" 

"that's exactly what we want to ask about, Nick" 

he swallowed thickly and let out a nervous breath. "i-i'm sorry, i can't speak about that"

"suit yourself" Hanji shrugged. "do what you want Levi" 

the wrench closed and Hanji grinned largely at the wails that soon followed.

"it's only a matter of time, Pastor Nick"

x

Annie had sighed in relif when she heard the car pull away from the driveway and speed away. she allowed herself a few moments of peacefully laying down on the grass to catch her breath and rest. 

her eyes felt heavier by the second and she didn't fight the drowsiness, she closed her eyes and let herself doze off.

she was almost there. just a few more seconds and she'd be sound asleep.

but today was appearently not Annie's day. a long stream of ice cold water hit her face and she shot up to avoid it. 

"what the fUCK?!" Annie yelled as she wiped her face and turned to glare at whoever dared drench her.

"hey there, Squirt" Reiner stood infront of her with his arms crossed and holding an empty water bottle in his hand, he smirked smugly as he waited for her reaction.

Bertholdt stood nervously next to him with drops of sweat sliding down his face.   
"i-i'm so sorry, Annie! i told him not to do that!" he tried to explain while holding a hand to help her up.

she scoffed and slapped the hand away, standing on her own.

"what do you want, Reiner" she demanded.

"we want you to come with us" he grinned.

"where?" 

"no where in particular. we just want to go around and cause some trouble and we want you to come with" he shrugged.

"I'm grounded. and even if i wasn't, what makes you think I'll come with you?" she raised an eyebrow.

"oh come on, we're cool. you're cool. we want you to join our squad"

"that sounds lame" 

"it's not. it's cool and we're sure you'll love it" he tried

"just give it a chance, Annie" Bertholdt spoke up with a hopeful smile.

Annie stayed silent for a few minutes to think the offer over. it wouldn't be so bad would it? she guessed not. she finally sighed.

"fine. give me some time to take a shower before we leave"

Annie ignored their cheers and walked back to the house while they stayed outside to wait. 

levi and Hanji wouldn't come back for a while and Annie would certainly be back before they came back. it's not like they don't keep track of her anyway. they'll know where to find her if they wanted to.

Annie however, was worried about these two outside. sure she knew them but she didn't KNOW them. these weren't the same Reiner and Bertholdt and Annie didn't know how to deal with them.  
they didn't look dangerous. they didn't look suspious. Annie could kick their asses even if they were.

maybe they'd be able to answer some questions that she had.

x

leaving the house with Reiner and Bertholdt, they'd showed her their usual hangouts. told her about what they do when they grouped up.

"we usually just do some pranks around town then leave, it's really fun. tagging the walls and stuff" 

Reiner spoke about these people who usually joined them. said that they're going to introduce Annie to them.

Annie was slightly nervous. if these were the people who she thought they were...

they stopped at an abandoned building, it wasn run down and looked fairly old. broken windows, dry, peeling paint, various trash around. 

"this is our main hideout!" Reiner announced as he pushed aside the planks of wood blocking the entrance.

"the guys are already waiting for us so we'd better hurry" 

Annie stopped in her tracks when she saw the fallen staircase, the guys however didn't and aproached it like there was nothing wrong.

"what are you-" Annie started.

they both in turn just sprinted to the wall and kicked off of it to land on the second floor. "think you can keep up, Annie?!"

she smirked. oh she could definitely keep up.

the continued advancing inside the building to the 4th floor, avoiding various obstacles and going through trashed hallways.

she followed them to a door which Reiner smacked open. Annie could hear cheers and chattee inside so she peeked her head between Reiner and Bertholdt. but she didn't get the chance to look as she was pulled inside.

the room was massive, and Annie could see that the room was pretty big, with lots of cheap furniture scattered around, couches and tables mostly.

the group of people of people greeting Reiner and Bertholdt were not unfamiliar to Annie, which only confirmed her thoughts. her stomach churned and she frowned.

'play it cool, Annie. you have to pretend you don't know them' 

well, she 'knew' one of them. not the other two.

"you already know Ymir, the tall dumb bitch who is constantly around Historia. these are Porco and Pieck!" 

Annie kept her eyes on the two. Porco waved lazily in greeting, Pieck offered a warm smile with a much enthusiastic wave. 

she returned their greetings with a nod.

'this is just getting harder and harder' Annie thought miserably.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It isn't much and not that great of a chapter but i rushed through it. Hopefully it's gonna be ok for now.


	16. Chapter 16

Annie was back at school the next week, her grounding finally done. she had a long weekend to herself at home which she spent reflecting about the previous events.

it caused her great conflict to think about what happened but she did and she could finally get some peace of mind for a while, at least untill something happens again.

Annie walked as slow as she could to her first class, which she didn't bother checking what subject that was, she had both Mina and Mikasa in that class and she was mentally preparing for a heck lot of explaining to do.

she opened the door shooting a shrug at the teacher for being late and shuffling over to her desk next to Mina. 

the girl gave Annie a big hug as soon as she sat down, which was met with a small pat on the back with an awkward smile. 

Mina didn't let go until her name was called for attendance, she pulled back and looked at Annie with a big frown on her face.

"where have you been all week?! i was so worried!" 

"oh uh, nowhere" Annie mumbled.

"why didn't you answer any of my texts?!" 

Annie was about to make some half assed excuse to avoid answering but stopped once she looked at the expression Mina held. the girl was pouting with a sad puppy dog face, she had small droplets of tears in the corners of her eyes. Annie felt bad.

she had only replied to Mikasa that day to ease her worries after seeing Annie in such a state and that was it, Annie hadn't contacted anyone since.

"I'm.. sorry, Mina. i didn't mean to ignore you or anything, there was just an.. incident last week and i had been grounded shortly after" she explained.

"you.. you still could have told me" she pouted.

"how?" Annie smiled. "send a letter? i don't even know where you live" 

"well not a letter, that's so old" Mina giggled.

Annie shrugged and looked to the front where the teacher was beginning the lesson and crossed her arms so she'd start paying attention. a slip of paper slid infront f her shortly after.

Annie looked at the folded paper before looking at Mina who gave her a cute smile. she sighed and opened it under the table, not risking getting caught.

'you need to make it up to me'

Annie's lip twitched and took a pen to write back.

'for what?' 

'for making me worry' 

'that's it??' 

'and for dissappearing for a week. who do you think had been getting notes and homework assignments for you when you run off to god knows where?!' 

Annie's eyes lingered on the scribbles, now she felt bad. 

'Alright, I'll try to make it up to you. and thanks for doing that for me by the way' 

Annie slid the paper back and put down her pen, she gave Mina one last smile before shifting her attention to the lesson while signaling for the other girl to do the same.

class ended smoothly and just as the bell rang someone was standing in front of Annie's desk looking down at her. 

Annie looked up at Mikasa lazily and slowly started gathering her things, she knew it pissed Mikasa off when she took too long.

Mina was doing the same next to Annie, not as slow though. she smiled at Mikasa in greeting but Mikasa ignored her. she frowned.

"hi Mikasa" 

her efforts were met by a stony gaze and a nod in reply. Mikasa turned back to Annie.

"hurry up or we'll be late, Annie" 

Annie just smirked and shrugged, she stood up and picked up her bag and looked at Mina.

"let's go before miss perfect attendance here loses her patience" 

Mikasa frowned and said nothing.

x

Mikasa sat next to Annie in their next class after dropping Mina off at her own class.

"so any reason you're being a bitch to Mina lately?" Annie casually asked.

"I'm not being a bitch to her" Mikasa replied defensively.

Annie raised an eyebrow. "im pretty sure you are"

"im not" 

"sure" Annie drawled.

"i am not" Mikasa said firmly.

"then why are you giving her all these glares when you think she isn't looking? and why do you not reply when she's talking to you? you ignore her" Annie stated.

Mikasa didn't reply.

just as Annie was going to keep pestering Mikasa, the teacher interrupted with a loud clear of his throat.

"miss leonhardt, since you are clearly having no troubles with lesson and could afford to chat. why don't you come answer this equation for the rest of us?"

Annie kept her eyes on the teacher as the students laughed and snickered at her. she scoffed. "sure no problem, sir"

she stood and walked confidently to the board, scanning the question in the middle before picking up a marker and starting to write down the answer.

everyone including Mikasa stayed silent as Annie walked back to her seat and sat down. 

"what?!" she demanded. "is my answer wrong?" 

".. no, it's correct" the teacher answered.

"then why are you staring at me?!" 

"this is tomorrow's lesson, i only wrote the equation on the board so everyone would have an idea what to study for" 

"oh okay then" she shrugged.

class ended and Mikasa immediately put her stuff away and pulled Annie up and dragged her out of class, she didn't have to wait for Annie to take her sweet ass time this time because the girl didn't bother taking anything out for this class.

"why are in such a hurry" Annie tried to keep up.

Mikasa kept walking and opened a door to the left which was a supply closet. she closed the door and slammed Annie to it, wasting no time to attach their lips together.

Annie was stunned but kissed back as soon as she got over her shock. pushing off the door and switching their positions to slam Mikasa to the wall instead.

both girls moaned and pulled each other close.

"what's up with you?" Annie asked breathlessly.

"nothing, i just wanted to kiss you" 

Mikasa pulled her back in and wrapped her arms around her neck to keep her close.

"we'll be late to the next class" Annie said between kisses.

"and since when do you care about that?"

"i don't. but you do" Annie grabbed the hand that stared making it's way down Annie's body to the bottom of her hoodie.

"but-" Mikasa started.

"no, not here" Annie said.

"okay fine" Mikasa went for a last kiss. "by the way, when did you learn to answer that question back in class?" 

"math isn't hard, and i just look through the content every week to get a rough idea of what's going on" she shrugged.

"you study math on your weekends?" Mikasa laughed.

"yes?" Annie didn't know what was funny about that.

"you're such a nerd" Mikasa snorted.

"no I'm not, that's you" Annie scoffed.

"I'm a straight A student but im not a nerd. you on the other hand, are a nerd who studies math on weekends because she enjoys it" Mikasa laughed.

"well, it's kind of hard to hate something you're good at" Annie shrugged and pulled away. "now, are we going to class or are we staying here?"

"hmm as much as i want to stay, skipping wouldn't be good for my college application" Mikasa stood up and lightly adjusted her hair before taking out a tube of lipstick from her pocket.

"are you done?" Annie looked at Mikasa as she held the doorknob.

Mikasa applied the lipstick as Annie stared, she made sure to pucker her lips as she finished. "what do you think? it's new" 

"looks good" 

Mikasa pulled her chin for a quick peck.  
"and the taste?" 

"uhh great!" Annie stammered at the look Mikasa had.

"great" Mikasa smiled satisfied and grabbed Annie's hand to twist it and open the door. "you coming?" 

she winked and left Annie to catch up.

x

the door to a cell opened and Hanji came out with a huge grin on her face and bloody gloves on her hands Levi followed soon after looking much more moody than he usually did, though with his own bloody gloves as well.

"hanji, this isn't working, we need to make them talk soon" Levi said eyeing the cart table that was being pushed out of the room they had just left, a trays of bloody ripped out nails sat next to a few tools.

"oh we will, Levi, don't worry" Hanji smiled as she picked up a bag and tossed the nails inside. "we just need to shift our method a tiny bit" 

she looked back at him with a dark smirk forming on her face.

"what's your plan?" he asked.

"open the door just a little bit, just so our guest can hear what we say" she nodded to the door as she started scribbling some notes on a piece of paper.

"why?" he asked.

Hanji shooed a guard away to bring another prisoner to the room. they had him strapped on a chair as Hanji slammed the paper infront of him. waiting for Levi to open the door before turning to the man and holding a knife playfully in her hand.

"why don't you be a sweetheart and read what's on that to me outloud. be as clear as possible" she gave a sickening sweet smile and played with the tip of the blade.

the man's breath quickened in fear and did as told, not paying attention to the meaning of the words he was saying.

"Alright that's all we need. men, take him away" Hanji hopped down from the table she sat at and walked to the door.

"come, Levi, let's check on our other guest" she smiled and stepped inside while he simply gaped.

"now, pastor nick, we gave you much time to rest before we resume" Hanji started.

he looked at her warily with fear clear in his eyes.

"but thankfully, one of your men finally had decided to cooperate and tell us what we need" his eyes widened. "we'll let him go and forget that he was ever a part of your cult as a thanks for his information"

Hanji kept going, ignoring the look of disbelief on the pastor's face as it slowly morphed into one of rage.

"but unfortunately, he was simply a follower and wasn't very informed of your plans. so that means we'll have to keep you and your other men here untill someone offers to help us" 

she continued, shuffling through the tools and picking a few out to set them aside.

"we picked out your toenails last time, how about teeth this time?" she paused her speech to ask with a big smile. shaking the tool infront of his face.

he gulped.

"w-wait.." 

"oh? why wait though? if you won't help then you'd be wasting the time we'd be making progress with other prisoners" 

"did.. did he really tell you what i think he did?" he asked defeated.

"yup! everything he knew, he told us" she smiled happily.

"that traitor!" he hissed.

"well, that doesn't matter anymore. we should get back to-"

"no! I'll.. I'll tell you what you need to know" he frowned.

"ooh really??!" 

"yes" he replied.

"great! Levi, there will be no need for the tools anymore! grab me some papers" she grinned.

she knew he'd break and tell them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed this chapter.  
> Can you please tell me which part of the story you'd like to see more of?  
> the mikannie school part? Or more about the wall people and the main plot?


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry for such a late chapter. I was procrastinating.

"what?!"

"you heard me, Annie" Erwin said.

"why would you do that without telling me first though!" Annie frowned.

"because this was decided by the military department, by Pixis specifically. he wants to make sure you can go somewhere without supervision and not break our rules" Erwin explained.

she stayed quiet and made no further comment. 

"and while you're there, we'll look more into this titan thing. maybe Hanji and Zekd can find a cure" he continued.

Annie's eyes lifted to look at him, she knew it was foolish to hope but she still did.

"we make no promises but we'll do our best" Hanji added with a smile.

"fine. I'll go." she sighed.

"excellent, I'll contact Pixis to make the arrangements" Erwin stood, pleased.

x

Annie stood in line at the school parking lot with nearly all of the students in her year. she glared at anyone who got too close to her or spoke too loud. why did she agree to this again? 

she clenched her fists in her hoodie pocket and squared her shoulders. because she killed people. again. yeah that's why.

by the time Annie's line was infront of a bus, she had significantly calmed down and no longer radiated her typical vicious vibes anymore and instead she just wore an annoyed expression instead.

she lazily took the steps and slowly walked across the space in the middle looking at the seats and searching for an empty one. hopefully she can scare off some poor kid and have it to herself.

an arm waving caught her attention and she saw Mina standing where her seat is. Annie frowned. as much as she wanted to sit with Mina, there just was too many people she knew around and she knew they'd be talking through the entire ride.

a hand caught Annie's arm before she could walk away and Annie's eyes narrowed before looking at the person who dared to touch her. it was Mikasa.

Mikaa sat on the seat next to the aisle leaving the window seat empty. clearly stating that it's taken.

Annie kicked at Mikasa's legs lighlty so she'd move them to Allow Annie to enter.

once she settled in, she placed her backpack on her lap, put her hoodie on her head and crossed her arms.

"you look terrible today" Mikasa said.

"oh gee thanks" Annie replied sarcastically.

"haven't you had enough sleep last night?" she asked.

"not really" Annie shrugged.

"why?" 

"i was thinking of ways to get out of this dumb trip" she lied.

"no luck?" 

"what do you think?" Annie raised an eyebrow.

"hm, you can sleep on the way. I'll just be reading anyway" Mikasa suggested.

"yeah, maybe i will" Annie yawned.

x

Pixis sat on his desk drinking from a flask he had retrieved from his pocket, he wore a pleasantly satisfied expression as he leaned back on his chair. Erwin stood nearby looking at some papers.

"was arranging that school trip really necessary, sir?" he asked settings down the papers.

"of course"

"may i ask why?" Erwin turned around to face his commander.

"the kid has obviously seen hard times, been under a lot of pressure. more than any of us had. she deserves a break and has the right to be a child again, if only for a short time" Pixis said.

"i understand. but was it really a good idea to disconnected the navigation to her phone?" 

"of course! if we want her to trust us, we need to trust her first" 

"but.. why do we need her to trust us? have you got something in mind, sir?" Erwin asked narrowing his eyes.

"of course not" he chuckled. 

x

Mikasa sat reading her book through the majority of the bus ride, occasionally glancing at Annie who was resting against the window. she'd seen her shuffle around for a while now, woke up a few times when the kids around them spoke too loud.

her attention seemed to be pulled from the text she was reading by a quiet whisper every now and then. she was sure it was Annie but couldn't catch what she was saying. 

Annie's head had drifted off the window and onto Mikasa's shoulder during the way on a bumpy road and Mikasa held her breath. she could feel the warmth of Annie's breath on her neck. she relaxed soon after.

resting her head on Annie's and fixing her gaze back to her book. 

"whoosh" 

it was barely there, but Mikasa had finally caught it! she waited for Annie to say it a few more times before she couldn't hold the smile back and giggled to herself.

x

at the back of the bus sat the rest of the gang, chattering loudly to each other.

"say guys, didn't Annie come to the trip? and where's Mikasa? i haven't seen her since this morning" Sasha said as she chewed on a piece of beef jerky she had stolen from Connie.

"Annie did come. and Mikasa's with her" Ymir replied smirking, leaning her body on Historia's.

Historia huffed and pushed Ymir off of her. "yeah i saw them sitting together when i got on" she confirmed.

"why don't we go give those two something to do instead of being the quiet nerds they are" Reiner laughed joining the conversation and patting Eren roughly on the back causing him to drop his phone.

"no! i don't want to talk to them" he sneered. "especially Annie!" 

"oh come on! you can't still be salty because she kicked your ass that day" he laughed.

"no, I just don't want to talk to a bitch like her!" he stubbornly said.

"i think you're just a pussy and is scared of Annie" Ymir smirked at him.

"shut up, Ymir you stupid bitch! no I'm not" he yelled.

"now now, no need for that sort of language, asshat" she snorted. "if you aren't scared then why don't you just go and say something to her?" she challenged.

Eren stopped. everyone was looking at him waiting. he really didn't want to.

"fine! but one of you will come with me" he glared.

"I'll go!" Reiner volunteered. "come on, kid" 

he motioned for Eren to follow him.

x

"now, you just go there and pluck the book from Mikasa's hands" Reiner stood behind Eren and pointed at the item he had just talked about.

"w-what? but she'll kill me if i do" Eren exclaimed.

"stop being a little bitch, Eren. you're the one who was complaining about them a few minutes ago"

"i don't want to piss Mikasa off" he argued.

"fine then, go wake up Annie instead" Reiner smirked. he could feel the others eyes on them.

"but.." 

"if you're too much of a pussy to do anything other than yell about everything then I'll just go back to my seat" Reiner shrugged and turned around.

"no wait! I'll do it" 

"that's the spirit! now go!" Reiner gave him a push.

Eren gulped and aproached the two girls cautiously. swallowed thickly before pulling the book from his step sister's hands and causing her to look at him from the corner of her eyes sharply.

"... why are you two sitting all the way here and not with us! what you're too cool for us or something?!" he accused loudly. soon enough the bus became quiet and everyone looked at them.

"give the book back, Eren" Mikasa said slowly turning her head to glare at him. she made sure that her movement wouldn't wake the girl on her shoulder.

"no! you answer me first" he shook his head.

"Eren" Mikasa gritted her teeth.

"Mikasa" he mocked.

"give it back, loser" a cold voice cut through their glaring and everyone's attention shifted to Annie who was sitting up straight with an angry look.

'oh damn she's pissed' Eren thought nervously. he still made no move to give the book back.

Annie slowly stood up and left the seat to dangerously aproach Eren in the middle of the bus aisle.

Mikasa grabbed her arm before she could go further. "Annie, don't" 

Annie pulled her arm back and stood just a few feet away from Eren. "im not going to repeat myself again. give. it. back." 

".. n-no" 

Annie's face turned from her usual cold stare to a full angry glare and Eren could see her start to shift her stance infront of him.

he gasped.

\- 

Eren stood infront of Annie in her signature fighting stance. her fists a few inches away from her face and her knees bent.

the stance caused a disturbance in her uniform's belts and they tightened around her thighs.

Eren stood helplessly as Annie came towards him with a dark glare. 

it was too fast for him to process. all he could register was that he was on the ground now with his ass in the air and legs bent awkwardly infront oh his view. 

he saw Reiner laughing loudly at his expense and could hear Annie calling out to Reiner mockingly.

-

Eren's eyes widened as the scene vanished. the background flashed back to the familiar bus and sure enough, Reiner was still there laughing at him.

Annie picked up the book that Eren had dropped and turned back to the others. "if any of you bothers us again, I'll throw you out the window instead of on the floor" she threatened.

giving Mikasa her book back and sitting back on her chair with a grumpy slouch.

"you really didn't have to do that, it was uncalled for" Mikasa commented as she flipped to the page she was previously on.

"your brother is annoying" Annie scoffed and leaned on the window.

"i know and he had it coming honestly, but doing it here wasn't thr best thing to do. you'll get in trouble"

"you're saying that as if i care" Annie huffed and closed her eyes to try and go back to sleep. "please wake me up when we arrive" 

x

three hours later, the bus stopped at the gate of a camp site. it was in the middle of a forest with various cabins scattered around. the main one was noticeably bigger and there stood a few teachers waiting.

Mikasa shook Annie awake and ignored the scowl she recived in return.

"we're here" she simply said.

Annie didn't reply and just sighed instead.

they waited for everyone else to eave before leaving the bus together and standing next to the others in line. Annie pretended to not notice the dirty look Eren was shooting her. Mikasa just frowned.

she could hear the idiot that is Ymir cackling and making bets with Connie and Sasha to see if Annie will snap again if they went to talk to her or pushed Eren to make her angry again.

"listen up everyone!" a teacher called out. "we'll be staying here for a week and during that time you'll be working on a few activities we have prepared for you. this is not a vacation!" various groans of complaints were heard after that line.

"you'll be put into groups of five based on the teacher's choices, you'll have to work with your team to get back to camp" 

a stunned silence fell upon everyone, return to camp?

"that's right, we'll drop you off deeper into the forest tonight and you'll only get a map, compass, and a few basic items like matches and a first aid kit and a pocket knife. in order for you to sleep in a bed an eat you'll have to find your way back" 

everyone broke into yells of anger and rage, Sasha was the loudest, probably because of the idea of being seperated from food.

"this trip was organised by some very important people, they specifically asked for this so everyone WILL do this. please do not embarrass us"

Annie raised an eyebrow. 'Erwin' she rolled her eyes.

"but you aren't gonna go in and be left to die so calm down! we'll give each group a flare which must not be used unless it was an emergency or three days have passed and you're still lost"

that seemed to calm a few people down, but the looks of concern didn't waver.

"the first three groups to make it back will get a very special reward though. so you might want to take this a bit more seriously. that is all"

everyone dispatched an headed for the biggest building for their last meal before being sent off to the forest.

Annie stared at her plate with a deep frown, she really didn't want to be around people she didn't know, or worse, people she actually knew.

she could only hope her team wasn't too insufferable.

"don't worry, I'm sure we'll be on the same team" Mikasa whispered in her ear.

"and what makes you so sure?"

"i may have seen the list the teacher was carrying around" Mikasa gave her a small cheeky grin.

"oh." Annie sighed. "that's a relif"

"yeah. i couldn't see the other names though, sorry" Mikasa apologised.

"no that's ok, there's no need to be sorry. you did a lot by just risking to sneak a look into the list just to reassure me" Annie smiled lightly.

"it's nothing" she linked their hands under the table and gave it a squeeze. 

Annie squeezed back and went back to her dinner with an open appetite this time. maybe this won't be so bad. forests were her element afterall.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> At the rate this story is going, 2019 will be here by the end of this story lol.


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Im sorry it took so long but I finished this chapter at least lol.

Annie slouched as she walked alongside Mikasa, she had been noticeably irritated ever since they entered the forest.

their team had been given the equipment needed for their little journey and they'd been walking around aimlessly for half an hour now.

as much as she just loved to waste time doing nothing, this was just too boring and stupid.

Annie kicked at a stone and huffed before marching up to bickering couple a few meters infornt of her and snatchinh the map away from Ymir's hands and pushing her to the ground. ignoring the disproving look she recived from the remaining three girls.

"Ymir!" was all that's been said by sweet little historia as she bent down to help her girlfriend up.

"what the fuck's wrong with you, midget!" Ymir snarked.

Annie sent her an annoyed look before scanning over the sheet in her hands and looking around.

"why the fuck have we been walking here, Ymir. we are totally off track" Annie scowled.

"oh? and you would know that how" Ymir mocked. "are you an expert on maps now" 

as a matter of fact, Annie was. compared to them at least, but she didn't offer a reply and opted to change the direction they've been going and taking a left.

Mikasa didn't hesitate and walked behind Annie, while the others saw that there was no other choice and optef to follow too.

they've been walking around for another half an hour before Annie annouced that they'd arrived at their destination.

they stood in a clearing big enough to fit a cottage and it was empty other than a small box in the middle of it.

they aproached it carefully and pried it open, inside was a stack of papers and a note taped to the inside of the chest, saying that the must only take one sheet.

Annie was irritated to see that it was another map but reluctantly took it and once again steered her group through the forest. 

she huffed quietly to herself. she didn't know how many locations they'd have to go through before they could finally go back to the camp.

once she finished studying the map she made it a point to voice her exact thoughts upon it.

"they have riddles on this thing! what in the actual fuck!" she complained and turned around to glare at her companions, as if they had been the ones who planned this.

"calm down, big nose, we don't like it as much as you don't. so just use you and Mikasa's brains and get us out of here" Ymir said, always the one to start a decent conversation.

"shut up before we leave you here" Annie muttered and walked up to Mikasa to show her.

"hmm, these are easy enough i think. they seem to point in directons of locations"

"yeah i understand, the answer to the first question is supposed to be a river, guess we're going to the river" Annie decided.

"how do you know that, Annie?" Historia asked.

"what could 'streaming water' mean other than that?" Annie raised an eyebrow.

"oh-" "we could stock up on water and i could make some instant noodles on the way!" Sasha cut off. 

Annie honestly forgot she was here since all she did was stuff her face with food during their entire journey.

"no sasha, we can't make instant noodles" Mikasa sighed.

"oh but why not" Sasha whined and pouted.

"becaude we don't have any, Potato girl" Ymir replied.

"oh well can we catch some fish then?" she asked hopefully.

"no. we don't have time for that" Mikasa said. and sasha frowned sadly.

"let's get this over with" Annie said walked away, leaving the group to follow.

-

Hanji sat in her lab with her co-worker Zeke and was looking at her noted in frustration. nothing was adding up. how could these people who were so far away from their time be so advanced?

Hanji flipped through the papers a few times before sitting back on her chair with a huff. she rubbed her eyes and looking at the pictures shown in the nearby book she had.

that type of artillery was too advanced to be made in an era such as 850. how though.

"i don't think they've been counting years as we have" Zeke commented from his table where he's been inspecting a few dna samples from Annie.

Hanji perked up at the comment. she narrowed her eyes in suspicion as the gears in her mind were strating to move.

"I've been reading the book last night and i think we've completely miscalculated. in Armin Arlert's words. they've been counting the years ever since the titans appeared, not from the birth of Jesus Christ" he explained without looking up from his research.

suddenly, Hanji's expression lit up and she stood up hurriedly to once again scan over her papers. "it makes sense! i can see why they'd have such machinery such as canons and that gear Annie was describing! ooh this is amazing, we can finally pinpoint just what we need of everything!" 

Hanji continued rambling as Zeke looked up to give an unimpressed look before resuming his work. what a handful that Hanji was.

"i can't wait to tell Annie about this! she'd be so relieved!" Hanji smiled to herself.

-

Annie and the others have been looking for the clues left for them by the teachers all day, it was now sunset and they were on their 7th riddle.

"this is ridiculous, i should have never came here" Annie muttered grumpily as she led the others to their next destination.

"guys.. how long do you think we'll have to stay out here?" a nervous voice warily asked. Annie didn't care to respond.

Historia looked back at the nervous Sasha and tried to soooth her worries. 

"oh im sure not too long, why?" 

"we're out of food" Sasha gulped. and Annie scoffed, seems right that the girl was more worried about her stomach than them actually leaving this forest.

"correction, you're out of food. we still have our supplies but we aren't giving you any" Ymir smirked.

"aww but why!" Sasha whined.

"because we, actual smart people, know that our food is limited and that it is supposed to be saved for an unknown amount of time. we can't be eating it all at once" Ymir replied.

"b-but!" she stammered, pouting and hoping to gain the sympathy of one of them.

she had no such luck as Ymir just kept smirking, Annie didn't even once glance back at her. Historia was too busy trying to break out of her girlfriend's arms to respond. and Mikasa simply gave her a deadpanned face.

Sasha sulked as she walked.

Mikasa was looking around peacefully, completely ignoring Sasha's pathetic whines, she noticed how dark it was starting to become and called out to Annie.

"i think we should stop and settle for the night, Annie" 

Annie considered their options and shrugged.

"let's just get this new riddle first, it's a few miles away. we could stop for the night afterwards"

the other seemed relived to be able to get a break and they've fastened their pace in order to get this over with.

-

Annie sat against a tree looking at the depths of the forest boredly, they'd already got their 9th riddle and were now preparing to sleep so they'd continue early in the morning. 

Ymir and Historia had taken out their sleeping bags and upon Ymir's request linked them together. Sasha was already asleep a few feet away from them. 

Mikasa had excused herself to go relif herself in the woods. Annie suspected that Mikasa was taking her time because she didn't want to listen to Ymir's crude jokes when she came back. 

Annie crossee her arms and made herself comfortable against the bark of the tree and closed her eyes, not intending to fall asleep yet but to simply rest her eyes. she simply let her mind wander off to think about the current situation.

she recognised this forest very well, and this chilled her to the core. she did a good job of hiding it but Annie knew that she wasn't getting any sleep tonight.

this was the forest where Annie made an appearance as the female titan to the scout regiment and were lured to come out as the traitor. she remembered dreading that day.

Annie's brows furrowed as she saw flashes of the dead bodies she had squashed in her attempt to retrieve Eren. their faces were mocking her. she had shed so much blood and wasted so many lives just to fail in the end. 

lost in her thoughts, Annie didn't hear the footsteps coming closer to her. they stopped infront of her and side stepped her so they'd sit next to her.

Annie's eyes opened to glance at the girl sitting next to her.

"you okay?" Mikasa whispered.

"yeah" Annie responded.

"did i wake you?" 

"no" Annie looked up at the sky, it was dark and she could see the stars shining brightly around the moon. several dark clouds were passing by and they carried a gentle breeze.

Mikasa adjusted her scarf around her neck and slid down a little so she'd lean her head on Annie's shoulder. 

"you should get some sleep" Mikasa said, her voice muffled by the scarf.

"don't worry about me" was all Annie said.

Mikasa frowned but offered no response and closed her eyes. she snuggled her head closer to Annie's and sighed contently.

Annie moved her head to rest it on Mikasa's and closed her eyes once again. she allowed herself to drift off to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story is nearing it's end and I have some news I want to share next chapter so keep an eye out for the story :)


	19. Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry for disappearing for almost three months :')
> 
> I saw that a lot of you kept commenting, following and favouriting the story so I felt really bad about not updating. I finished this chapter and the last chapter is currently in the work, not sure when it'll be done but hopefully before 2019 starts lmao
> 
> I hope you like the chapter, I spent all day writing it because I was determined to get it out to you guys.
> 
> Read till the end because I have some news

Emotionless.

that's one word to describe Mikasa Ackerman. her comrades could come up with a ton more words for her. scary. cold. lonely. that's how they saw her.

she could see the fear in her sparring partner's eyes, despite him being about three weight tiers above hers. she felt an oddly satisfied wave of emotions hit her. they were intimidated, that was good. intimidation means respect. no one would dare disrespect her. not to her face at least.

she could feel the panic in her partner's body as he desperately grasped at her uniform while she flung him several feet into the air and directly at her "brother's". 

she walked calmly, collected, towards the pair with their fellow teammate who managed to escape Reiner's hulking body. her eyes fixated on the small blonde figure who was dusting herself off.

their eyes met and Mikasa felt her lips move. words. she said them with an air of confidence that some people would even call arrogance. she asked for the blonde to show her a move. Mikasa felt oddly excited during their stareoff. maybe it was everyone's excitement around them seeping into her own. maybe it was because she had long waited for this opportunity. she didn't know.

what she did know is that her and Annie were about to have the best spar the 104th cadet corps had ever seen.

"why would you have any need for this? someone like you would have no need for a move like this." Annie questioned. tempting Mikasa even more. "however, I'm curious to see if they work on a beast like you" 

Mikasa felt her emotions spike. yet her face never changed. still as emotionless as ever.

Annie took her signature stand and Mikasa kept her own, her arms at her sides. their eyes piercing into each other's.

there was a bright flash as both made their first move. the sounds of their peers muffled into the background.

-

Mikasa woke with a silent gasp and a rough jolt in her body. her eyes instantly closing due to the bright sunlight 

the first thing Mikasa noticed is that Annie was no longer next to her. the second things was her bag had clearly been gone through and Mikasa narrowed her eyes in the direction on the still sleeping Sasha. she suspected that the girl had a late midnight snack from Mikasa's supplies.

she stood up and dusted her pants off and tried to wipe anything off her back but it wasn't as effective as she thought.

"you're up" voice from behind her said.

"yes, and how long have you been up for?" Mikasa walked around the tree to see Annie leaning against it with one leg resting against the wood behind her.

"not for long"

Mikasa could immediately call bullshit on that. Annie looked like she hasn't slept all night.

"let's wake the others, the sooner we start moving the sooner we're out of this place" Annie walked past her without so much as a glance, Mikasa frowned.

she kept her eyes on Annie as she wiggled her foot beneath Ymir and kicked her off of Historia with a might shove.

it would have been an amusing sight to Mikasa if it hadn't been for the dark look on Annie's face, supported by dark bags under her eyes.

she sighed, better to go wake Sasha before Annie decides to do the same to her.

"what the hell is your problem, Freak?!" Ymir screeched and shuffled to her feet.

 

"we're leaving in ten minutes, be ready or I'm leaving without you" Annie said coldly as she dug around their items for the map.

"you're such a bitch and your attitude is nasty" Ymir spat and turned around to help her girlfriend up.

Annie didn't care to offer a reply and just waited at a tree nearby as she kept her attention focused on the map in her hands.

Mikasa crept closer and put her hand on her shoulder, she felt Annie's shoulders tense.

"you okay?" she asked quietly.

"no." Annie replied shortly "I need to get out of here, Mikasa"

"don't worry, we will soon" Mikasa gave a gentle squeeze with her hand.

Annie kept her head down while they talked, she didn't want her face to be seen.

-

the next map appeared to be the last, to which Annie sighed thankfully. she didn't know how much longer she could stay here, she was tired. tired of the voiced that kept talking in the back of her head. telling her how their deaths was her fault.

it was though, it was her fault. she killed them with her hands, crushed them under her feet like tiny pebbles, bit down on their bodies as if they were a mere crisp. sometimes she could even taste blood in her mouth.

she stayed up all night trying to avoid sleep. because she knew if she closed her eyes and drifted off, she'd also start to hear their screams, the sound of their bones as they broke, their blood as it spilled. she couldn't handle that.

"we're here" 

they stood in a path, both sides of it was littered with big and long trees. 

"where is here exactly?" Sasha asked.

"the forest" Annie replied in a 'duh' voice.

"I.. can see that" clearly Sasha was nervous.

"there's supposed to be a chest here somewhere" Annie informed. this being the last of what they needed to find was slowly improving her mood.

"let's split, that way we could find it faster" Historia suggested.

"no!" two voices objected. it was clear the objections were for very different reasons though. Sasha was scared to be alone here and Ymir simply didn't want to be away from her girlfriend.

"it shouldn't be too far away, we're just splitting to look around these trees" Mikasa explained calmly.

they reluctantly agreed and everyone began their search. it took them a while to find the box since it was well hidden but they found it nonetheless. not alone however.

the box was opened and like every other chest, there was a stack of maps for the students to find their way back. but one more slip of paper was poking out, clearly to differentiate the first three groups from the others.

Eren's group was also a few meters away from the box. Eren was in the lead with Armin next to him holding the map. Reiner, bertholdt and Connie not too far behind. figures they'd be one of the groups to finish first since Armin is with them.

Annie's eyes met Eren's and a silent glaring conversation between the two before both bolted for the chest. 

Annie didn't know why she wanted to get that slip of paper so bad at the moment. probably just because she didn't want Eren's group to win.

Annie slid to the ground and snatched the paper right from eren's hand. she smirked at him before truimply walking back to her own group. 

she gave a shrug at the expression Mikasa was giving her. she could see the small smile she tried to hide as she shook her head.

"Annie you bitch, that's mine!" Eren screamed at her retreating form.

"not anymore" she coolly replied.

she could tell he didn't like her reply. his eyebrows furrowed so low in a vicious glare. Annie gave him her normal bored face.

"give it back!" he yelled.

"or what?" she raised an eyebrow.

"or I'll punch you in the fucking face" he snarled taking a step forward.

"hm, is that so?" Annie pretended to be scared before going back to her original expression. "id like to see you try" she challenged.

"come on Eren, you aren't going yo back down now are you?!" Ymir excitedly shouted. they were in for a treat if they could get Eren mad enough to stupiditly try and challenge Annie.

he took another step forward and cracked his knuckles, to try and intimidate her most likely. too bad it didn't work.

everyone but Historia and Mikasa were cheering for a fight. Mikasa knew she should stop them before anything serious happened but just as this morning, she silent gasped at the sight before her eyes.

in Eren and Annie's place were two hulking figures, both quite resembling themselves. Eren was loudly roaring at Annie while she kept her cool as she faced the monstrous Eren.

Eren started with throwing a fist directed at Annie's face, she easily dodged. he kept trying to attempt landing a punch on Annie.

Annie gasped, his face briefly flashed into the face of a titan. she stumbled back and lost her footing as she tried to dodge the last punch.

Eren waster no time in going down after her and pulling his left arm back to get as much momentum as he could, before throwing it down directly at Annie's awaiting cheek.

luckily, Annie managed to move her head away just in time and Eren recoiled back and held his hand close to his face with a choked whine.

as Eren sat hugging his arm and holding back tears of pain. Annie looked at him with wide eyes, she could no longer see Eren, she only saw his titan staring back at her with a venomous glare.

Annie suddenly seemed to get her sensed back as Eren attempted another punch with his uninjured hand. she quickly deflected the fist and twisted his arm so that she could move under it and capture him in a headlock.

but his squirming, and her previous flashback resulted in him getting away and with just enough time, Annie gave him a strong kick to the stomach. kicking him off into the tree beside them.

Annie cursed at Eren's stuborness as he shuffled to get back to his feet. she gave him a sharp left hook straight to his jaw, and he was thrown back on his ass from it's force. 

she turned around to look at the others, they were all staring wide eyed at the two. wether from shock that Eren was actually that angry that he directly out himself at Annie's mercy or that Annie was actually taking so long to kick his ass.

she heard mostly everyone cheering on the fight. Reiner and Ymir had their phones out and were recording every single thing.

Annie's eyes met Mikasa's. she looked as if she was in a trance and Annie couldn't help but to frown. but she she could hear Eren flailing behind her and she knew he'd be back up to try another attempt at landing a punch on her face.

so she sighed, a bit angrily. and turned around to face Eren. he looked at her with a bit of fear as their eyes locked.

"Annie!!"

Mikasa's call fell deaf on ears as Annie delivered a 180 kick to Eren's cheek. effectively knocking him out and into the tree he was leaning against.

she turned around and started walking past everyone.

 

"Annie!!" Mikasa caught up to the girl and grabbed her shoulder, but before she could spin her around, Annie broke free and put a few feets distance between them.

she looked back at Mikasa from the corner of her eyes. "what?"

Annies face was blinking between hers and the beast that Miakasa had saw. but she shook her head and ignored it.

"did you really have to do that?" she asked.

"I was teasing but your brother took it too seriously. I wasn't about to let him land a finger on me. keep him on a leash the next time" Annie coldly replied.

"I know Eren could be stupid but please avoid hurting him too badly. he'll just try more and more to get back at you next time" Mikas sighed.

"I don't mind beating his ass each time he thinks he can beat me" 

"i know you don't, but please, just ignore him next time. please? for me?" Mikasa grabbed Annie's hand.

Annie didn't reply for a good three minutes before she grunted a quiet. "fine"

"thank you" Mikasa sighed and smiled. she leaned in and pressed a small kiss on Annie's cheek. "now let's go to the others before they get lost"

"they have Armin" Annie said annoyed. "they aren't going to get lost" 

"still. we need to be with our team, Annie" 

-

"man Annie, that was epic!!" was the first thing she heard when she and Mikasa went back to the others.

Connie and Sasha were grinning at her and waving stupidly the moment they saw them. Reiner and Ymir were looking at the videos they took and laughing while Historia and bertholdt shook their heads at them.

Eren still laid where he previously fell and Armin was next to him checking on him.

"let's just go everyone" Mikasa said. 

"I'll get Eren" Reiner walked to the unconscious boy and bent down to pick him up. he settled him on his back with Armin' s help.

the walk back to camp took about thirty minutes of Connie and Sasha still chattering about the fight and even going as far as replaying it and mimcking the moves used.

Annie did her best to ignore any comment directed at her from anyone who wasn't Mikasa, Armin or Historia. 

"oh my, what happened to Eren?!" 

was the first thing the teachers said when they arrived back. no one dared to answer so Annie did.

"he fell." she deadpanned.

"he looks like he was attacked!" 

"he fell." she repeated and walked away.

she walked past the teacher to stand off off the side and waited while her teammates delivered the slip she had beat up Eren for.

Annie was disappointed but not surprised. it was a pass for free cafeteria food that lasted a month. she didn't have a need for that, she never are that nasty crap anyway.

she looked off to the side where Eren was being escorted out of the medical cabin. he had just woke up and Armin was immediately by his side.

seems like she beat him up for nothing after all.

she saw Sasha mocking Connie for not having access to unlimited food nearby and her lips tugged upward for a second. 

Connie looked around frustrated, he saw her and gave her a pathetic pout. nah this won't work on her. she shrugged her head in the direction of Mikasa and he was confused for a moment before he understood what she meant and his eyes lit up and leaving Sasha and her bragging behind in pursuit of Mikasa.

Annie though to herself for a second before walking away too. she approached the cabin door infront of her.

"what do you want?!" Eren growled. "came to gloat?? well no need, you can just go fuck yourself!" 

Annie gave him an unimpressed face before taking something out of her back pocket and presenting it to him. her free food slip.

she could see the obvious confusion in his eyes and just shrugged.

"I went too far, you didn't deserve that. I'm sorry" she said without looking at him. 

his hand came up cautiously and grasped the paper. as if he was expecting her to pull it back and laugh in his face.

"you aren't that bad of a fighter you know, maybe I could show you some moves sometimes" she gave him a tiny smile. a genuine smile.

"I-.. thanks?" he was too surprised to say anything else.

"on one condition though" she looked him in the eye.

"what's.. that?"

"Leave your sister alone and stop being an ass to her" she said seriously.

"I-" he gulped and grasped his slip tighter. "I will"

"good." she turned around and left.

she went back to her original loitering spot, seeing now that Sasha was complaining that Connie didn't earn the slip he begged for from Mikasa.

"you didn't have to do that you know" 

"I did, I went over the top" Annie said.

"I meant what you told him about me" Mikasa leaned on the wall beside her.

"I wanted to" Annie looked at the taller girl with a smirk.

"well thank you" Mikasa chuckled. "that was sweet of you" 

"you're welcome" 

"and for your thoughtfulness, I think you deserve a reward" Mikasa smirked as she moved closer.

"oh? what kind of reward?" Annie smiled.

"the best kind" 

"I like the sound of that" 

"i knew you would"

Mikasa pressed her body to Annie's and pressed a kiss to her lips, she ran her hands over the front of Annie's hoodie and up to the back of her neck. settling her fingers there and pressing her thumb to Annie's jaw.

Annie stuck her fingers into Mikasa's jeans belt loops and pulled her waist closer and pressing it against her own. Annie shivered at the feel of Mikasa's warm breath before a tongue peeked out and lightly licked them.

"Mikasa" Annie breathed out.

"yes?" Mikasa playfully replied.

"go out with me" Annie blushed a bright pink. "on a date" 

Mikasa's eyes lit up "of course!" 

"good" Annie smiled before grabbing Mikasa's chin and connecting their lips move more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So as you can see, this story has one more chapter to go before I officially complete it. But my original plan was to have this as an introduction to a bigger story. I left a lot of plot holed solely because I wanted to address them in a much more plot driven story. But the reason I couldn't keep up with with one is because of how much ideas were just swimming in my head. The only reason I could actually finish this chapter is only because I took about a day or two just writing down scenes and plots and ideas of other stories so I'd have some peace of mind to write it.
> 
> Anyway, let me know if you like this chapter, if you think I could've done better or if you just want to complain about how long I take to update lol.
> 
> Also please tell me if you're intrested and willing to bare with me for another part of this story. Not right away of course, I am actually planning to write some short stories for other fandoms, and explore different ways of uploading my stories. (I want to try finishing an entire story before even publishing it so I won't leave anyone hanging if I decided to stop writing for a while) 
> 
>  
> 
> This note is too long lol. If you read it all tell me in the comments.
> 
> I hope you enjoyed reading this and I'll come back with a new chapter soon. (Hopefully)


	20. Chapter 20

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back and not dead :D!  
> Happy (late) New Year and I've come to the new year bearing news and chapters!  
> I'll tell you at the end of the chapter ;)

Annie felt suffocated. She’s been in this tomb for over half an hour now and can feel herself no longer being able to bear it. She could hear the frantic thumps of her heart loudly in her ears and feel the tremble in her chest while she took short gasps in desperation to calm herself.  
The machines outside are beeping in sync with Annie, a clear warning to those standing beside it that the procedure should be paused, and the subject be given time to recover. A few buttons were pressed and the soft hum, and the continuous beeping in the room started decreasing. The machine opened, and Annie appeared on the operation table as it moved out of the solitary room, red-faced, sweaty and out of breath.  
“I’m sorry. I’ll be okay to finish it next time, I promise”  
It was after a moment of silence that Annie spoke, muttering quietly with disappointment laced to her words.  
“you’ve said that for the past five attempts, Annie” the words only caused her to clench her jaw and look down in shame. “maybe we should stop for the day, give you time to collect yourself before we try again tomorrow”   
“no, we have to finish this as soon as possible!”  
“we’re not getting anywhere today. Go home and get some rest, we’ll continue the same time tomorrow, hopefully you’ll be able to be bear the procedure till the end”  
Annie’s shoulders sank. Hanji was already taking whatever notes she could find while shutting off the machines. She couldn’t believe that se was so weak. Getting scared of some little confined space, her titan’s nape was a lot smaller than this box. Pathetic.  
She sat on the table while Hanji shuffled some papers around and typed some words into the tablet in her hands.   
“so, have I been useful at all during these experiments?” Annie asked, fiddling with her hands and smoothing the fabric of the medical scrubs she wore.  
“actually, yes. Your panic attacks shows a perfect look into how your body reacts to what you consider danger. We can see how the defense system of your titan acts up during those moments, your DNA structure starts trembling, your body gets very warm very fast. It’s simply waiting for you to bite your hand or cut your finger, so it can protect itself”  
Annie nodded in understanding and clenched her hands, she’d been very close to biting them the first time, which made her very thankful that Hanji pulled her out before she could do it.  
They’d been here since early morning, it’s now almost 6pm. Hanji called Levi and asked him to drive Annie to the lab because she and Zeke had found something strange in the samples they’ve been taking from Annie. A molecular defect that kept giving different reactions each time Annie transformed.  
Annie explained what she thought it was by saying that her body was different each time she became a titan. Whether it was size, durability or mass. Hanji believed that this was the key to the start of their research.  
Hanji believed that if they could predict some of its more repeated reactions, they could make a counter. Meaning they could create a cure. She was told not to get her hopes up in the meantime, not until they had solid proof and a strong foundation to their hypothesis.   
“don’t worry, Annie. Zeke and I have got this. We’ll figure it out” Hanji gave her a reassuring smile and a thumbs up before nodding at the door. “Levi is waiting outside, go and get some rest.”  
Annie nodded weakly in return before leaving the room to put on her jeans and hoodie and leaving the building to meet Levi.  
…  
“Levi this isn’t our house” Annie deadpanned as she looked out the window to where they’ve stopped at.  
“no shit sherlock”   
“why are we here?” she raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms.  
“because you’ve promised your girlfriend a date and you’re not delivering” he retorted, causing Annie’s face to become bright red.  
“she’s not- she’s not my girlfriend!” Annie stuttered.  
“yes, if you keep this up, she won’t be” he snorted and parked at the end of the road. “so, you’ll be going to her house and telling her your date will be tomorrow’s night”  
“I’m not going to do that, Levi!”   
“too late to back out now. Either you go or I’m honking till someone comes out and I tell them you’re a pussy.” He put his palm in the center of the wheel to prove he’s not joking.  
“ok fine! Just stop. Put your hand down.” Annie threw her hands up, pushed the door open and jumped out. Stomping up the driveway with her hands shoved deep into her hoodie pocket, angrily muttering to herself while she tried to calm herself.  
Standing in front of the door for a good two minutes before finally reaching her hand out to place her knuckles on the wood. She did knock twice but she barely heard them herself, much less the people inside. As she averted her eyes down to ignore Levi’s that were burning a hole into her back, she noticed the doorbell by the side, sitting there quietly and mocking her cowardice.  
She pushed the button before she could stop herself.  
The little tune caused Annie’s stomach to drop. This is it. She couldn’t back out now.  
The thought of tuning away and bolting was too tempting, screw Levi for making her do this. While Annie contemplated her escape, the door had already opened and took whatever confidence she had left with it.  
“Oh, Annie!” Grey eyes widened, and the girl adjusted a pair of glasses with a shy smile. “what’s up?”  
“you wear glasses” Annie spoke as her eyes stayed fixed on the mentioned item.  
“y-yeah, I need them to read a-and see and stuff” Mikasa replied awkwardly, wishing she could take them off and hide them away.  
“I didn’t know that” cursing at herself in her head for stalling and avoiding the reason she was here in the first place. “they look cute on you”  
Porcelain cheeks lit up in pink and a small smile pulled at the corner of Mikasa’s lips. “thank you”  
“you’re welcome” a moment of silence passed before Annie cleared her throat. Might as well get it over with while she had the chance. “are you busy tomorrow night?”  
Mikasa confirmed that she was free, and Annie inhaled shakily. “do you want to go on that date with me tomorrow then?”   
“of course! I was wondering you were going to ask” Mikasa replied with a big smile. “I was beginning to think you weren’t interested anymore”  
“No! I mean- no, I still am. I just didn’t know how to bring it up” Annie rubbed the back of her neck.  
“well, I’m glad..” Mikasa reached out and grasped the sides of Annie’s hoodie and pulled it gently over her head, leaning in. “I’ve been waiting for you to say something...” she bumped her nose to Annie’s with a smirk, nipping at Annie’s bottom lip and placing a small kiss to it.” wondering when you’d come up to me and tell me that you’re taking me out...”. She giggled at Annie’s frozen state and took her time to pull the sides of the hood even further to steal a kiss, pulling back when she felt the lips that were pressed against hers start to move. What a tease, was the only thought the blonde had. “I can’t wait”  
Annie swallowed, Mikasa’s eyes bore into hers, never letting them look away for even a second, demanding all her attention to be on her.  
“I can’t wait either”  
“good.” Their foreheads touched. Annie’s hands finally moved to grasp Mikasa’s waist gently and pull it against hers. They were probably attracting weird looks from whoever was passing along the street, and Annie knew Eren was glaring at her through the window. Levi was probably recording this to show Hanji later, so they’d tease her. But she didn’t care, she wanted to stay like this for just a little longer.   
“it’s getting a little cold. Want to come inside?”  
Blue eyes snapped open and it finally downed on her what Mikasa was wearing. Only a thin t-shirt and small shorts. If Annie was a pervert who looked at inappropriate areas, she’d see Mikasa’s nipples popping against the fabric of her shirt.  
“no, it’s okay, I’ll see you tomorrow”  
“you sure?” Annie nodded. “well okay then. I’ll see you tomorrow” they shared a goodbye kiss before reluctantly pulling away. Mikasa stepped back into the house and Annie turned away to walk back to the car. they smiled at each other when Annie was seated in the car before it started to move and drive away. Annie didn’t even look back at Levi before she growled. “shut up.”  
…  
Annie hadn’t slept that night. She was nervous okay?! And all Hanji and Levi were doing was laugh at her and play the video on repeat for the rest of the evening. She didn’t know what to do for the date, didn’t know where to take Mikasa; as she was still not familiar with the area. Didn’t know what to wear and if she should buy something or not.  
She felt old. She had asked Hanji, what do kids do at dates these days? And next thing she knew, Hanji was wheezing on the floor and calling her a grandma.   
So, she called Armin. At 12am. She kept the poor boy up for about 45 minutes before he promised to come by in the morning to plan the date with her. She would’ve sincerely thanked and gave him a hug if she wasn’t so embarrassed. He was sweet and never laughed, even when Annie was panicking over nothing. She vowed to make it up to him somehow.  
It was now 4pm and she’d sent a text to Mikasa to tell her to ‘dress warm’ and that she’d pick her up at seven.  
She and Armin- well, mostly Armin- had set everything up and it was all ready by the time their date rolled by. Annie didn’t have license, so she couldn’t drive them to their destination and had to reluctantly ask Levi to be their chauffeur for the night because she didn’t want to bother Armin any longer.  
They’d set up a picnic atop a hill, Annie knew of this place from her days back at the 104th training corps and Armin lit up at the suggestion, he listed some of Mikasa’s favorite diners and desserts and went with her to pick out whatever she needed. He also stopped them at a flower shop and picked out a beautiful bouquet, telling her that ‘no date is perfect without flowers for the lady’.  
Her and Mikasa were in the backseat as Levi drove, Annie’s knee would bounce every now and then and Mikasa would reach out to hold it and give her a sweet smile, reminding her that “whatever the date is, I’ll love it. Just because you’re with me”.  
They left the car hand in hand, thanking Levi for the lift and receiving a “I’ll be back in three hours, don’t do anything I wouldn’t do” in return before he drove off.  
Mikasa gasped as Annie led her to the setup, it was beautiful, Annie admitted to herself. Armin was a great wingman and date planner.  
A blanket was spread out with scented candles around it, over the fabric and outside. A basket was set to the side, but it was empty, everything had already been taken out and arranged for two, she saw a fresh trail of footsteps and knew that Armin had just left when he saw the car lights. She made a mental note to shoot him another thank you text.  
She helped Mikasa sit down with a barely contained smile. She was truly beautiful. Even in casual wear, a simple sweater and jeans. “thank you”.  
Annie blushed. She didn’t realize she had said that out loud. Oh well, it was true.  
They ate in contempt silence. Neither needed a verbal conversation. They simply enjoyed each other’s presence. Mikasa was leaning on Annie’s shoulder and resting her head against soft strands of yellow, and Annie had her head tucked just below Mikasa’s while they both held plates in their laps and cuddled.  
When Annie pulled away to unwrap their dessert, Mikasa’s heart fluttered. Annie had gotten her favorite Japanese dessert. She didn’t know how Annie knew but didn’t feel that it was necessary to ask. It was a sweet gesture and that’s all Mikasa would care about now.  
“thank you for an amazing date, Annie. It’s the best I’ve ever been on so far” to be honest, Mikasa preferred quiet activities like this, she would have been fine with a movie and pizza, but Annie went the extra mile just to impress her. It was more effort than any of her past dates did for her.  
“you’re welcome” Annie answered, all her nervousness gone and replaced with giddiness. “I hope this won’t be our last though”   
“of course not, I’d love a second date. I’ll be the one to plan it though”  
“deal”  
“but since we still have time, and the scenery is beautiful, how about a dance?” Mikasa asked with a smirk, enjoying how fast Annie’s blush exploded on her face.  
“w-what?! B-but there’s no music around!”  
“so?” Mikasa raised an eyebrow. “I can just play some from my phone if that’s the only issue”  
“I don’t know how to dance” Annie weakly protested.  
“it’s okay, I’ll show you”  
“but...”  
“Annie. Dance with me” she couldn’t refuse that pout.  
“fine.”  
Mikasa cheered, Annie thought it was adorable. She was pulled by the hand to the edge of the cliff, where a clear patch of land was. Mikasa chose a song that Annie didn’t know, it had a nice tune and the lyrics were sung softly, then she stepped close and placed a hand on Annie’s shoulder while the other held hers. Annie knew this pose so she placed her hand on Mikasa’s waist.   
They started swaying slowly, holding on to each other and enjoying the closeness. The song ended but they remained pressed against each other, simply wanting to be in the other’s arms. “that wasn’t so bad, was it?” Annie shivered at words whispered in her ear. “no, not at all” she smiled and pressed her face into Mikasa’s shoulder.  
“great, now let’s please get away from this edge. It’s unnerving and making me nervous”  
“you’re the one who wanted to dance here!”   
“I did! And now that we’re not dancing anymore, we don’t have any reason to stay near it”  
Annie laughed and let go of Mikasa.   
“come on then”  
Mikasa smiled and moved to follow Annie. Her foot stepped into a fragile part of the edge and her body tipped backwards. Her heart skipped a beat and she gasped. “Annie!”  
Annie’s hand grasped hers, but Mikasa’s body was heavier and her momentum was not going to stop by a hand hold. The blonde soon followed Mikasa down.  
A hand gripped to the edge, was the only thing stopping them from falling to their deaths. Annie was thankful suddenly for all the intense training she’s been through. She didn’t know if she’d be able to support both of their weighs without it. She looked down at the frightened girl below her. Mikasa was holding on to Annie’s hand like it was the only thing that would keep her alive. And it is.   
“Annie please don’t let go” Mikasa cried.  
“don’t worry, Mikasa. I won’t let anything happen to you”   
“Annie please do something!”  
“I will! Just give me a second!” Annie desperately tried to think of a plan to execute, she wasn’t willing to die this way and wasn’t willing to let Mikasa die this way either. A thought suddenly popped into her head. Looking down at the Mikasa. “don’t panic okay?! I’ll keep you safe!”  
“Annie what do you mean?! Annie!”  
Annie closed her eyes and bit her lip as hard as she could to draw blood. A bolt of lightening struck her and a huge arm covered her own, the one gripping the edge, she bent it and with all her might pushed herself and Mikasa upwards.   
They fell into each other on the ground and Annie pulled her arm out of the steaming limb and breathed hard. They stayed on the ground to catch their breaths and to let the shock of a near death experience pass away.   
A honk caught their attention, and Annie could see Levi glaring at her through the glass. well shit, she was not looking forward to explaining this later.  
The ride to Mikasa’s house was silent and Annie was dreading it. Mikasa hadn’t spoken a word yet and it was only making her even more scared. She walked Mikasa back to her door, hoping to get a word alone with her before the end of the night.  
“Mikasa I’m sorry, I didn’t want to tell you this way, or this soon. I-“  
“Annie, what are you?”   
“I… I’m a titan”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I've got a writing schedule now and I'm hoping to start going by it from now on, that means I'll try updating regularly for any future story i make.   
> I have a few stories planned for other fandoms so if you're interested in any of these, let me know:  
> 1\. Life is Strange  
> 2\. Supergirl  
> 3\. The 100  
> 4\. DC (harley x ivy)  
> 5\. OverWatch
> 
> Tell me what you think of the chapter and if you hate me for closing the story on a cliffhanger (haha get it? cliff hanger lol)   
> Thank you all for your patience and i hope i've redeemed myself with the chapter.   
> See you in other stories? Bye :)


End file.
